A CERTIAN AMERICAN HOWITZER
by BigFics2
Summary: Two members of the Judgement American Branch come to Academy City in pursuit of an extremely dangerous and deadly esper convict. One whose power does more than just kill everyone it affects. Judgement member Kuroko Shirai is assigned to assist them. How will she deal with having to help and constantly be around two boys? One of whom rivals her Onee-sama's Railgun abilities.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own Railgun nor Index, They are the property of their respected owners. This is just a fanfiction.

**A CERTAIN AMERICAN HOWITZER**

Prologue

September 27th, 20XX, 10:30 pm.; 30 minutes past curfew. In one of Academy City's hundreds of poorly lit alley ways, a young, short brown haired first year Highschool girl is walking rather quickly to make it back to her dorm with her school bag draped over her shoulder. She's wearing the school uniform of Sakugawa Highschool which looks very similar to the Middleschool's uniform. Suddenly a musical tone of a famous idol boy band begins to play. It's her phone's ringtone going off. She slows for a second to retrieve her phone from her pocket and quickly answers it.

"Hello?... Ah Chigusa! I'm sorry! Yes I know it's well past curfew but Judgment training took way longer than expected. Miss Konori's training can be a little rough and long winded sometimes…. Yes I'm headed back to the dorms now…. Don't worry I was given a permission paper that I can show to any Anti-Skills that stop me for being out so late…. Of course I know how to get back. You know who you're talking to right? They don't call me Shima, the Human GPS, for nothing you know. I can find my way though anything, anywhere… Um, let's see."

Shima stops and closes her eyes for a moment in concentration. Her espier powers project an aerial view image of Academy City and her exact position, in her brain. "Cutting though some alleyways, it should take me about 15 minutes to get back to the dorm, give or take a few seconds. So I'll be back soon…. Ok then. Keep the dinner you made warm ok? See yah." she says as she then hangs up.

She puts her phone back into her pocket and beings to speed walk again though the alley. But as she turns to the right to head down the right path of a forked alleyway, she bumps right into someone knocking her backwards into her butt. "Ouch!" she yelps as she rubs her butt. She then realizes that she ran into someone. "Oh I'm very sorry-" She stops mid-sentence when she looks up at the person she bumped into. A young man wearing a plain white T-shirt and blue jeans, he's still standing and has shoulder length jet-black hair which partially covers his right eye. His beady eyes, more pronounced nose, and rounded jaw, plus his white skin, all obviously show that he's not Japanese, but Caucasian.

He looks a little scary with that bland, ever so slightly mistrusting look on his face. For a moment she contemplates running away. But in an instant his face changes and softens as he gives a kind, albeit hardly noticeable, forced smile. "Oh I'm very sorry Miss. Are you alright?" asks the young man in plain English. English may not be Shima's best subject, but she at least can carry on basic, albeit broken, conversations wither English teacher. She also notices he doesn't have a British accent, but a very unique accent never-the-less. She knows she's heard it before in American movies, but she can't put her finger on it yet.

"Ah… Yes. I Okay. It was… mine fault." She realizes she's butchering the English language right now, and she knows her English teacher would give her a failing grade if she heard it. But the young man seems to understand her. "Ah no, it's all my fault. I got lost and was trying to find my way back to my hotel. There are so many alleys in this city." says the young man. "AH BROOKLYN, NYC! That's his accent!" Shima realizes as she stands up and brushes herself off. "You lost? Many alleys in city. Easy get lost in. Like a maze. Need help?" She tries to remember her English lessons so she can clear up her speaking.

"Oh I would be very grateful. My hotel is in the Hotel District of the city. Can you direct me to it? I can find my hotel from there at least." says the young man. "Yes. I can help." Shima closes her eyes to concentrate. As her "Human GPS" ability shows her a path through the city, the young man gives a small smirk. The smirk disappears as Shima opens her eyes. "Okay. Take alley way to the end. Turn left go down next alley. Exit right onto street opening. Straight three blocks. Enter Hotel Distract." directs Shima.

"Ah, thank you very much Miss. I appreciate it." says the young man. "Um. You are welcome. I happy to help." says Shima with a smile. The young man gives a small smirk again, but Shima doesn't notice it. "I'm Damien by the way. Damien Mitchem." says the young man as he holds his hand out. It takes a moment for Shima to realize what he's doing. "Oh. Yes. It nice to meet you too. My name is Shima Takanashi." she says as she extends her hand as well.

But as soon as they grasp hands Damien gives a very harsh smirk. Shima suddenly feels something shoot into her hand and up her arm to her brain in a flash. She tries to jerk back but finds herself unable to move. All her muscles are paralyzed. Even her breathing. "What the hell is going on?" she thinks to herself. "Heh. Now let's see. Ah. 'Human GPS' you call it. An ability to know exactly where you are anywhere in the world and figure out a path to where ever you want. Nice. Oh, but you're only at level three and have a limited range of ten blocks." he perfectly describes. "What the? How does he-?" she thinks in fearful shocked surprise.

"The only one in Academy City with this kind of ability eh? Not very powerful, but since I only just arrived here and don't know my way around, an ability like this will be very useful for the plan. I THINK I'LL TAKE IT!" he says with a very evil tone and greedy smile. Shima feels like something is crawling up her arm. No not crawling; expanding or invading is a better term. She tries to scream but her diaphragm is still paralyzed. The feeling reaches her brain and immediately she feels a sharp pain in her head. Much worse than any headache she's ever had. It's almost like something is eating away at her brain. Again she tries to scream. No use. Tears fall from her eyes as her eye balls roll back a little. The pain becomes unbearable. She somehow manages to grit her teeth and salivate from the side of her mouth.

She suddenly feels like she's becoming separated from herself. Her mind begins to go blank in some areas. It's like her thoughts, cognitive thinking, and memories are being cut out of her and are leaving blank spaces in their place. The memories of her family and friends disappear. "Wait what are friends? What is Family? What is…. What….is…." her mind is quickly losing its ability to even comprehend words. "What…is….me?" are the last incoherent words that play though her mind. She forgets who she is. She forgets she forgot. She loses her ability to even forget. Everything in her mind is disappearing. Then finally it's all gone, nothing is left, not even basic recognition commands in her brain are left.

Damien gives another evil smirk. "All done." he simply says. He let's go of Shima's hand and it just droops to her side. Her eyes are dead. Completely blank. No life in them what-so-ever with small trickles of drying tears from the corners. Her mouth is slightly agape with some droll off to the side. Her eyes roll back a little and her body goes limp. Gravity then takes its natural course. She hits the ground, on her back, with a hard thud. Damien looks at her for a moment with a cold grinning stare. "Ah shame I had to do that to the poor girl. She was a cutie. Oh well, with this power I'll finally be able to move the plan forward. Well. Time to get started." he says coldly. He steps over Shima's body and walks down another alleyway into the darkness.

End Prologue.

Story to start in 2015.

Author Note: I know this is short but it's only a prologue. I have 3 other stories I'm doing at the moment so I need to get though with at least one of them so I can start this one. Hence why I said "Story to start in 2015." I also debated whether to put this in the Index section of the Railgun section. But since it technically really doesn't matter I decided to put it in the Index section for more exposure.


	2. Murders in Paradise

Disclaimer: I do not own Index or Railgun. They are the property of J.C. Staff. This is just a fanfiction.

**A CERTAIN AMERICAN HOWITZER**

**Chapter 1**

**Murders in Paradise**

Sunday, September 27th, 20XX, 9:58 a.m. In the skies above Academy City is the large blimp that's constantly flying around with the weather report or various announcements for all the city. This morning though is the live morning news broadcast that's nearing its end. A female reporter appears on the screen about to give the final report of the day.

"And finally this morning, astronomers and other various scientists are eagerly anticipating the 'bullet burn' flyby of the Smith-Minamoto asteroid at the end of October. The 1.5km (1 mile) wide stony asteroid, which was discovered a little over a year ago and nicknamed 'The Jack-o-Lantern' asteroid by some, is set to pass by Earth on October 31st. At a close distance of approximately 120,000km (75,000 miles), the asteroid will pass Earth at roughly one third the distance to the moon. For all you amateur astronomers out there, you'll easily be able to watch it fly by with a telescope or even a strong pair of binoculars at 19:00 (7:00pm) on the evening of October 31st. It should be quite the show. Well that's all from us this morning. We'll be back for this evening's news broadcast." the reporter ends her broadcast.

As the blimp's screen returns to scrolling announcements a scream can be heard in the air. "AHHH!" *SHOWOOSH!* "AHHH! Shirai-san! Please stop!" *SHAWOOSH!* "You know how I hate Teleporting with you at such high heights!" yells a young girl with flowers in her short black hair as she's being "dragged" along by a multi-twin tailed pinkish-brown haired girl. *SHAWOOSH!* "Just bare with it a little longer Uiharu! Konori-sempai said it was urgent! *SHAWOOSH!* "I know! But can we please do it at a LOWER ALTITUDE!?" *SHAWOOSH!* "Just hold on! We're almost there!" *SHAWOOSH!* *SHAWOOSH!* *SHAWOOSH!*.

Within moments the two girls land on the sidewalk close to the entrance of an alley way that's sealed off by Anti-Skill tape and several Anti-Skill vehicles with their lights flashing and Anti-Skill guards keeping a crowd at a distance. *SHAWOOSH!* "Judgment members Shirai Kuroko and Uiharu Kazari reporting as requested. Konori-sempai, what's the situation? You said it was very urgent we get here." says Kuroko as she lands. Uiharu falls onto her butt with dizzy eyes and making a slight "dizzy" moan. Mii Konori, the buxom, glasses wearing, second year high school girl and chief of the 177th branch of Judgment, is leaning against the wall of the grayish-white building next to the alleyway looking visibly upset, but just short of crying.

"Konori-sempai?" says Kuroko a little more timid this time. "Oh. Shirai-san. Sorry. I'm just a little upset at the moment." stumbles Mii as she wipes her right eye. "Konori-sempai, what's happened?" asks Kuroko. Mii takes a couple of seconds to gather herself. "Do you remember one of the three girls I was training for Judgment, Takanashi-san?" asks Mii. "Shima Takanashi, the Human GPS? Yes, of course." responds Kuroko. "Well, we received a frantic call from her roommate Chigusa this morning saying that Takanashi-san never came back to her dorm last night. They had talked on the phone and she had said she was only 15 minutes away, but she never arrived. Chigusa mentioned that Shima had said she was going to cut through some alleyways to get home." describes Mii.

By this time Uiharu has stood up. "We and Anti-Skill concentrated our search in the alleyways, and that's when we…. found her." says Mii. "Found her?" asks Uiharu. "Her body… she's been murdered." THAT shocks both girls. "Murdered!? How!?" says Kuroko in shock. "We're not sure yet. But it appears to have been by another esper. We found no signs of attack or wounds on any part of her body." describes Mii. At that moment a couple of Anti-Skill coroners appear wheeling Shima's body, draped by a sheet, on a stretcher as one of the Anti-Skill guards lifts the tape. The three girls watch as the coroners load the stretcher into a van and drive off.

"Such a pitiful waste. She was such a kind girl with so much potential." says Mii with sadness in her voice. The head Anti-Skill detective in a bullet proof vest, riot helmet and shield approaches the three girls. "Konori-san I presume. I was told you're the chief of the 177th Branch of Judgment and was training the victim to be a member of Judgment." says the large male detective. "Yes. That is correct." she responds. It's a little hard to hear Shima being referred to as a "victim" but she knows he doesn't mean any insult by it. "I know you already gave your statement, but there are a few other questions that I need to ask you." he says. Mii watches the van turn a corner in the far distance and go out of sight. "Certainly." Mii turns to the two girls. "You two stay here and make sure no one approaches the scene. I'll be right back." she says. "Yes ma'am!" responds Kuroko.

As Mii walks away with the detective, Kuroko and Uiharu turn around and begin talking to each other. "Murdered… I can't believe it." says Kuroko. "Yeah. There aren't that many murders here in Academy City even though it can be dangerous." states Uiharu. "That's NOT what I meant. I mean I can't believe Takanashi-san was murdered. Who would want to do such a thing to a girl like her?" says Kuroko a little forceful. Uiharu takes a step back in recoil. "Ah. Sorry. I didn't mean in that way. I'm shocked too. And we just spoke to her yesterday too." she says. Kuroko puts her hand to her chin to think for a moment. "Uiharu, did you notice anything about her demeanor that seemed to indicate that she was concerned or upset about something?" asks Kuroko.

"Nothing. She seemed just fine. She was a little upset that she had to be held past curfew because of training, but that wouldn't be unusual." describes Uiharu. "Yeah. Same with me. I didn't notice anything unusual about her either. If I had to guess this wasn't a planed attack on her but more of a crime of opportunity." says Kuroko. "We don't know that for sure Shirai-san. She could have been followed without her knowledge, or she could have been targeted on purpose." describes Uiharu. "Hmm. That's true too. Well, speculating about it at this point without looking at the evidence first isn't going to get us anywhere. We'll have to wait for Anti-Skill's report and findings before going on with this investigation." concludes Kuroko.

The two girls hear Mii and the Anti-Skill detective approaching again from behind them. "Thanks for your cooperation Konori-san. We'll get back to you with our findings later today." he says. "Certainly. Anything I can do to help. And thank you." Mii responds politely. "By the way… Would you like us to handle telling her closest relatives for you? We know this is a difficult situation for you." says the detective politely. Mii looks slightly down and away in a moment of thought. "…No. I'll do it. I was the one responsible for her. I should be the one to tell her relatives. But I thank you for offering." she answers. The detective nods his head in understanding. Suddenly he gets some static and a call from Anti-Skill HQ on his helmet comms. "Excuse me for one moment." he says as he turns around to listen.

Mii turns to the two girls again. "So what did he have to say?" asks Kuroko. "He's not making any conclusions yet, but he says it's definitely an esper on esper attack. He's gotten a good look at… her body… and says there may be signs of internal trauma, but he says he's not sure. We'll have to wait for the autopsy report. He mainly was just asking me questions about when she left, where she was headed, and if I had seen anything or anyone suspicious that night." describes Mii. "Hmmm." Kuroko think hums. "WHAT!?" nearly shouts the detective. The three girls all turn around in surprise. "Another body!? This time in District 15? Right. We're on our way!" says the detective as he finishes getting the report.

He looks over at the girls. He knows they heard. "Sorry. I guess you heard that. Anyway we've got another body in District 15 and we need to head over there. It appears it might be the same attacker." says the detective. Mii instantly responds. "Detective! Let us come with you!" she says. "Huh? Sorry but that's out of Judgment branch 177's jurisdiction." he responds. "Sir! If it's the same attacker and MO then it's related to this case as well. We HAVE to investigate it if it is!" retorts Mii. The detective gets a slight annoyed look but relents. "Fine. I guess you're right. We're leaving immediately so get in that van over there." says the detective as he points to a nearby van.

Mii quickly turns to face the other two girls again. "Kazari-san, you stay here and gather what other information the other detectives here gather on Takanashi-san's murder." she orders. "Right!" respond Uiharu with a salute. "Shirai-san! You're with me." orders Mii again. "Yes Ma'am!" response Kuroko with a salute. Mii and Kuroko quickly pile into the van with several other members of Anti-Skill, already on Shima's murder scene, also headed to the second scene. The van pulls away leaving Uiharu behind.

It takes about ten minutes though city traffic to reach the second scene in District 15. It's located behind a low-scale restaurant. Several Anti-Skill vehicles are already on scene. As the van pulls up and the people disembark, a lower ranking Anti-Skill officer approaches the detective. "What's the situation?" asks the detective. The lower ranking officer salutes. "Sir. The body is still being examined by the coroner. It's a young male. His identification card has him as one Kira Ryusaki age 15. He's a well known level 4 esper from Nagatenjouki Academy. The manager says he was a regular here on Sunday mornings for breakfast and leaves via the back alley." reports the officer. "Ryusaki?" says Kuroko. "You know him?" asks Mii. "I know OF him. He was a prominent competitor in last year's Daihaseisai. I watched him play when his team went up against Tokiwadai's. I think his ability was called 'Iron Splinter.'" describes Kuroko.

"Oh! I've heard of that. It's an ability to cause anything with iron in it to shatter into smaller fragments right?" says Mii. "Not exactly shatter, but more like break apart with an explosive force. He was able to explosively shatter a column of concrete if it had steel reinforcement in it." retorts Kuroko. The coroner finally appears from around the corner of the restaurant and approaches the group. "So doctor, what have you got to report?" asks the detective. "He's been dead for just over two hours. It appears to have been the same method of attack as the first one that I got a report about. I won't know anything more until I get his body back to HQ and have a proper autopsy done." he reports.

"I knew it. It was the same attacker." says Mii. "So that puts his death at around 8:00 am this morning." says the detective. He then turns to the officer again. "Were there any witnesses this time? It is pretty crowded for breakfast at about that time." he asks. "We're still canvassing the area and interviewing people, but so far nothing. No one heard any screams or calls for help, or saw anything or anyone suspicious so far." reports the officer. "Hmmm." Kuroko once again puts her hand to her chin in thought. "This could only mean one of two things. Either the culprit is able to murder them so quickly that the victim has no time to call for help before they're dead. Or their power somehow prevents the victim from calling out while the murder happens." she says aloud.

"If I may…" says the coroner. "I do believe it's the latter." he says. "What makes you say that?" asks the detective. "I won't know for certain until the autopsy, but it appears that the victim was still alive for a few minutes after hitting the ground. Had it been a quick kill the signs, like the liver temperature, would have been different by a few degrees. Plus there were no signs of a struggle either on the victim or in the vicinity. Even if it was quick there would have been signs of the victim trying to get away or seek out help, which there are none." describes the coroner. "So we're more than likely looking for an esper whose power or side effect of said power can paralyze or otherwise incapacitate their victim." says Kuoroko. This time it's Mii who goes into thought. "Hmm. Something doesn't add up here though." she says. "What doesn't?" asks Kuroko. "I'm not sure… Why would the perpetrator attack these two? Was it random, or was it planned? I don't know but something just doesn't feel right about this. Ever had that feeling that something small will eventually lead to something really terrible?" asks Mii.

"Not really." answers Kuroko. "Hmm. It could just be nothing. Woman's intuition I guess." says Mii. "I guess that's something science will never be able to explain." says the detective with a grin. Suddenly another lower ranking Anti-Skill officer approaches the group and salutes. "Sir. We may have found someone who might have some information." he says. "Really!? That's great! Show us to him." says the detective. Within a moment the group walks around to the back of the restaurant to meet up with this "witness." It's a young male, about 18, and he's one of the restaurant's busboys. The lower ranking officer approaches him. "Ok young man, this is the lead detective on the scene and a couple members of Judgment. You need to tell them your information." he says. The young man nods.

"So young man, you have information about the murder?" asks the detective. "Well… no not the murder itself. But I did see someone suspicious before the murder. Though I'm not sure it'll be much help." says the busboy. "Every little bit of information helps. Go on." says Mii. The busboy nods. "Well we opened up at 6:00 AM this morning with the big Sunday breakfast crowd coming in at about 6:30 onwards. After about an hour we accumulated a few bags of trash. So just before 7:30 the boss tells me to take out said bags of trash to the dumpster out back." The busboy then points out the large dumpster just around the corner of back of the restaurant's rear exit, to a back way "T" shaped alley. The cross of the "T" being the main alleyway that runs along the side of the restaurant that leads out to the main street where everyone had been. And the strait part of the "T" being a narrower alleyway that contains the dumpster and leads out to a side street.

"Go on." says the detective. "Well as I was tossing the trash in the dumpster I noticed someone down the narrow alley. He looked a little suspicious just standing there leaning against the wall about half-way down the alley." says the busboy. "Suspicious how? Can you describe him?" asks Kuroko. "Well I didn't get too good of a look at him given the distance." says the busboy. "Please. Anything will help." says Mii. "Well. I could tell he was wearing a white T-Shirt, blue jeans, and I think either brown or black shoes; again I really couldn't tell. He had really long dark hair that covered one eye. I think it was black actually. But I could tell that he was also white." describes the busboy. "White? You mean he was a light skinned Japanese?" asks the detective.

"No. White. Um gaijin white. What do you call it again?" asks the busboy. "Caucasian?" says the detective. "Yeah! That's it! He definitely wasn't Japanese." answers the busboy. The detective crosses his arms. "Well that sure complicates things." says the detective. "How so?" asks Kuroko. "If we're dealing with a foreign esper here, then we'll have to vastly expand our search criteria beyond just Academy City." he answers. "I see." says Kuroko. "There's one other thing about him that I noticed that caught my attention most of all." says the busboy. "What do you mean 'most of all?'" asks Mii. "It was his mouth." says the busboy. "His mouth?" asks Kuroko.

"Specifically his mouth's expression. He glanced over at me and then walked out of the alley. But before he did I saw the creepiest smirky-grin I have ever seen in my life. It felt really cold and, to be honest, it scared me. So much so that I tossed the rest of the trash into the dumpster in one go and ran back into the restaurant. I didn't see him after that. It wasn't until I heard one of our female cooks scream when she went out for a smoke and saw the body lying there, that I thought of him again." describes the busboy. "I see. Well thank you for your information. At least we have something now." says the detective. "Sure." nods the busboy. He then goes back into the restaurant though its back entrance.

"Well it really isn't much to go on. The person he saw may not have been the perpetrator given how long he had left before the murder." says the detective. "He could have come back you know and it's all we have to go by for now until the autopsy reports come in. We can also check any security cameras in the area to see if any of them spotted this guy. Also do you think we should warn the public about this?" asks Mii. The detective only takes a second to think. "Not yet. We need to find out who we're dealing with and what his powers are first before we send the city into a panic." rules the detective. "Well what do you suppose we should do? Judgment can't act on a murder case without Anti-Skill's permission." asks Kuroko with her hands on her waste.

The detective only takes a second to think again. "Well for now, you two should head back to the 177th Judgment office. You won't be getting anymore information from this scene than what's already been said, so you should head back and wait for our findings and the autopsy reports. I give you permission to look into finding any evidence or clues to the first murder scene which is in your jurisdiction. If you manage to find anything that might help then please notify us. Is that sufficient?" he says. "Alright. That sounds like a good idea. And thank you for giving us permission. Do you mind if we look through the security camera footage in this area as well?" asks Mii. "I don't see why not. Go ahead." answers the detective.

"OK then. Thank you. Shirai-san we should head back now." says Mii. "Do you two need a lift?" asks the lower ranking officer. "No thanks. We can get back just fine. Right Shirai-san?" says Mii. Kuroko grabs Mii's left forearm. "Right. Thanks guys. If we find anything we'll let you know. Bye." says Kuroko. *SHAWOOSH!* *Shawoosh* *shawoosh* The two teleport away. "Man I am never going to get use to crazy powers like that." comments the detective.

Within two minutes Mii and Kuroko arrive back at the 177th Judgment branch office. Uiharu is already back inside waiting for them. "Ah! Welcome back you two." she says from her computer table. "Kazari-san did you get any more information from Takanashi-san's murder scene?" asks Mii. "Not much I'm afraid. There wasn't really any other evidence of the murderer besides her body. What about you? Did you get any more information from the second scene?" asks Uiharu. "Maybe. Someone did see someone suspicious hanging around the area before the murder, but right now we don't have much to go on besides a basic description and a time gap between him being seen and the murder." says Mii. "Uiharu. We have a job for you. The detective on scene gave us permission to access the security camera recordings around the area of the second murder scene. We need you to access all of them in the area around a lower end restaurant in the 15th district near the corner of 4th and 11th streets." says Kuroko.

"Is that all? That's a little boring to do, but ok." says Uiharu nonchalantly. She intertwines her fingers flips them backward and pops them then sets forth typing rather quickly on her keyboard. Within 30 seconds she's accessed the cameras in the said area, but then frowns a little. "Well this may not be much help I'm afraid." she says. "What's wrong?" asks Kuroko. "It appears the fiber-optic cables in that area were being worked on at that time. Out of the 24 closest cameras, only three were recording." describes Uiharu. "BLAST!" yelps Kuroko as she punches her hand. "Well bring up what you can Kazari-san. Which one was closest to the crime scene and was recording at around 7:30 this morning?" asks Mii.

Uiharu taps a couple of keys. "This one. It's down and across the street from the rear alley way exit that goes behind the restaurant." she says as she brings up the recording. "So it doesn't look directly down the alley to the murder scene." says Kuroko. "Nope. Sorry. And it's a couple of buildings down as well." says Uiharu. "Play it anyway. We might be able to see the suspicious person the witness saw." says Mii. Uiharu taps the mouse and the video begins to play. A few people walk by and even a couple of cars go down the side street for a couple of minutes before there's finally some activity from the alley's exit. A young man walks out of the exit and begins walking towards the camera's direction. "That must be him!" points out Kuroko. "Uiharu can you zoom in on him when he gets the closest to the camera?" she asks. "I can try, but it's an older camera. We may not be able to get much detail." responds Uiharu.

She skips the video forward about 20 seconds to when he's the closest and does her best to zoom in. "This is the best I can get it. There's still not much detail of him though." says Uiharu. The video is still grainy but they are able to see him clearer. "Dark hair, a white T-shirt, and blue jeans. And he's definitely a white foreigner. That's the guy the witness saw alright." says Mii. "Does this camera show him coming back to the alley at any time before 8:00?" asks Kuroko. Uiharu fast forwards the video until it reaches 8:00. "No I'm afraid. But according to the District 15 map there are two other alley entrance points to get to the rear of the restaurant. But there weren't any working cameras at the time covering either one." says Uiharu. "Well this is a dead end. This video doesn't prove this person did anything but loiter around an alley for a while." says Mii.

Kuroko has her hand up to her chin again in thought. She thinks for a little bit then hesitantly starts to speak. "Konori-sempai, what I'm about to suggest may be a little upsetting to go though for you, but please don't take it personally ok?" says Kuroko. Mii looks at her in slight confusion but sees her serious look. She has an inkling of what Kuroko might suggest next, but nods her head anyway to give the go ahead. "Uiharu, I need you to bring up all the camera recordings in this area between the 177th branch office and Takanashi-san's dorm. Then narrow it down to the alleyway where she was found murdered and all the alley entrance and exit points to that alley for around 10:30 last night. We're going to follow Takanashi-san from when she left here to when she was murdered as best we can." says Kuroko.

Uiharu turns to look over at Mii. Mii nods her head. "Go ahead." she says calmly. Uiharu turns back to her computer and begins typing. And again within 30 seconds she's brought up all the camera recordings from the night before between the 177th office and Shima's dorm. Then she quickly narrows down the list to the ones covering all the entrance and exit points to the alley and connecting alleys. "Ok, there are a total of 30 cameras covering the various points between here and the alley, and another 23 covering the entrances and exits. But sadly there are no cameras in the alley she was found in and very few in the others." says Uiharu. "Well at least this time we might get somewhere. Even though it's dark we may be able to spot something." says Mii.

"Do you want me to start from when she left here?" asks Uiharu. "Yes. If she was being followed then the 'stalker' may have started when she first left here." says Kuroko. "OK let's see. She left here at about 10:20 PM last night correct?" asks Uiharu. "That sounds about right." says Mii. Uiharu taps in the time and the video from outside the 177th branch office begins playing. The girls watch for about a minute before Shima enters the frame carrying her school bag over her shoulder. "There she is." says Kuroko. "Uiharu can you program these recordings to play as she leaves one camera's view and enters another?" she asks. "Simple!" says Uiharu. Uiharu's fingers type madly across the keyboard. It only takes a minute for the videos to line up in rows in order.

She hits play once again and the videos start. The girls watch as Shima walks rather quickly from camera frame to camera frame. The videos are dark but they can make her out rather decently due to the city's lights. It takes her about ten minutes before she reaches the entrance of the alley she was found in. She stops for a moment and closes her eyes. "I see. So she was looking for a short cut back to her dorm because it was already past curfew." says Kuroko. "That seems to be the case." says Uiharu. They watch as Shima opens her eyes, shifts her bag on her shoulder and starts walking again rather quickly down the alley before it becomes too dark for the camera to make out. "And that's the last any of the cameras saw her." adds Uiharu.

"I didn't see anyone following her either." says Kuroko. "Besides the occasional person walking on the street no one was following her as far as I could tell either." adds Uiharu. "Uiharu, can you bring up the cellphone GPS tracker to her phone? If I recall it was at this time when Takanashi-san got a call from her roommate." says Kuroko. Uiharu again types on her keyboard and again within a couple dozen seconds brings up Shima's cell phone records and GPS tracking data. "I take it you want me to trace her last steps with the GPS data?" asks Uiharu. "That's right." says Kuroko. Within moments Uiharu brings up a map of the area and matches it up with the GPS data to run a simulation with Shima represented as a blue dot.

Uiharu plays the simulation and they watch as the blue dot quickly makes its way down the alley before it suddenly slows and comes to a stop. "10:33. That matches up with the time her phone records getting a call from her roommate." says Uiharu. After a couple of minutes the blue dot moves again. It turns right down a forked alley and suddenly comes to a stop. Uiharu stops the animation. "And that's where her body was found." she says. "So it stands to reason that's where she ran into her killer." says Kuroko. "I would say so." agrees Uiharu. "Hmm." Kuroko thinks for a second. "Ok. If her killer was in this alley to the right, can you extrapolate which alley entrance he or she had to go though to get to this point?" asks Kuroko. "That may be a problem. We have no idea how long he or she was waiting for Takanashi-san or which entrance they used to get to this point. It could be any number of 23 possible points." says Uiharu.

"That is true, but this is all we have to go on right now. If the perpetrator had also been walking down this alley at the same time we could possibly narrow down the entrance points given the time it would have taken to meet Takanashi-san at this point. Just do it." says Kuroko. "Alright." says Uiharu. She types on her keyboard and within seconds two possible paths get highlighted in red. "Taking into account the average walking speed for a person and distance traveled, these two paths are the only entrance points they could have used to reach her at this point." says Uiharu. "Good. Very good. Now are there any cameras that cover these two entrance points?" asks Kuroko. Uiharu types away again. "Yes. There's one across the street from the one on 13th street, and one that looks down the sidewalk of other on 10th street." Uiharu answers.

"Bring them up and set their time index to 10:15." says Kuroko. With a few taps on her keyboard once again, Uiharu brings up both camera recordings. With a nod from Kuroko, she plays both recordings at the same time. The girls watch for several minutes with no activity from either camera besides an occasional car going by the 13th street camera. Then at 10:24, "THERE!" Kuroko nearly shouts. "On the 10th street camera! Someone's coming!" she points out. The person in question has his back to the camera as he approaches the alley's entrance, but the clothes look VERY familiar. "White T-shirt, blue jeans, and longish dark hair. This could be the same guy from the restaurant witness's description. If only we could see his face." says Kuroko. The person stops in front of the alley and then takes out a slip of paper and looks at it, then to the alley entrance, and then back to the slip of paper again.

"What's with the piece of paper?" asks Kuroko. "I don't know. An address maybe? Directions?" suggests Uiharu. The man then turns to head down the alley. "Come on. Show us your face, show us your FACE….. THERE! STOP!" orders Kuroko. Uiharu taps a key and the video stops. The video has stopped on a side profile of the subject's face. His long bangs also hiding his left eye from view. "That's the best we're going to see it I guess. But a good profile of his face I guess will do too." says Kuroko. She then notices something but can't make it out very well due to the shadows. "I wish we could see his face better. There's something odd that I can't make out." she adds. "Here. Let me adjust the video a little." says Uiharu. She adjusts the hue and saturation along with the brightness and contrast. "There." she says. The person's face is a lot clearer and brighter now. Now Kuroko spots what caught her attention and it sends a chill down her back.

His mouth. The grin on his face is creeping her out. "Wow. The witness was right. His grin is scarily creepy." she comments. She shakes the creepy feeling off. "Ok. So we know he took this alley. Is there any way to know which alley he exited from?" she asks. "No. At this point he could have taken any route out." says Uiharu. "Then I guess we'll have to watch them all." says Kuroko. Uiharu hesitantly nods her head and types on her keyboard. The 23 remaining camera views that cover all the alley exits get put into rows of four. "We'll take them four at a time. Is that ok Shirai-san?" asks Uiharu. "Do it. And start at around 10:35." Kuroko responds. Uiharu programs the time in and plays the first group of camera recordings. It plays and the girls watch it to 11:00, but no sign of the suspect. "This is taking too long. Uiharu for the next five groups double the play speed. Otherwise we'll never get through them all." says Kuroko.

Uiharu nods and programs the speed in. For the next hour and a half the girls watch intently at all the videos. Finally the last group ends. "Nothing!? Nothing at all!? Don't tell me this guy hung around in these alleys until early morning." says Kuroko in disbelief. "It's a possibility. Or maybe he's a Teleporter like you. It could explain how he's able to kill the victims so quickly." Uiharu suggests. "I doubt it." says Kuroko. "How come?" asks Uiharu. "Well for one we've proven he had to walk down the alleys to get to Takanashi-san in the time allotted. And two, even if he did get the drop on them, there would have been signs of some kind of struggle at both crime scenes. There wasn't any." explains Kuroko. "I see." says Uiharu. Kuroko thinks again for a second. "Uiharu, can you estimate how long it would take someone at normal walking speed to get from here to the crime scene in the 15th district?" asks Kuroko.

"Easy." says Uiharu. She types on her computer and a mathematical formula pops up and takes into account walking speed, traffic details during the night and early morning, and the quickest route from all the exit points. Within moments it lists several different results. "The average time comes out to be about two hours and 15 minutes." says Uiharu. "So for him to be at the second crime scene by 7:30am he had to leave by no later than 5:15am. Ok Uiharu, program the cameras from that time and run them backwards. Maybe we can catch him coming out in the early morning." says Kuroko. Uiharu does just that and once again the girls begin watching the videos but in double speed reverse.

Four more hours go by as they watch all the videos back to midnight, but still he doesn't show. "DAMNTI! Where the hell is this guy!?" shouts Kuroko as she slams her fist on the desk. Uiharu nearly jumps out of her chair in surprise. "Calm down Shirai-san. Let's think first. Do you think he changed clothes before leaving?" she suggests. "Not possible. No one person came out of any of the alleys. And the witness at the restaurant saw him wearing the same clothes we saw when he entered the alley." says Kuroko. "Maybe he came out later and ran all the way to the second scene." says Uiharu. "Doubtful. If he ran all the way he would have been too tired to commit any murder. How the hell did this guy get to the second scene without any cameras spotting him?" Kuroko thinks aloud.

A thought instantly pops into her head. "Uiharu! Are there any other ways to leave the alleys!? Like a walking bridge that connects two buildings or some kind of underground tunnel!?" asks Kuroko. "Let's me check." answers Uiharu. She types on the keyboard again and soon up pops a map of the alleys again overlaid with a blueprint of the area. "Let's see….. there's no footbridge that connects two buildings… AH! But there is an emergency evacuation tunnel with an access door connected to a building that runs along one of the alleys!" says Uiharu in shock. The doorway gets circled by a red circle. "That must have been how he got out! Uiharu where does this tunnel lead!?" asks Kuroko. With a few taps on the keyboard the tunnel gets colored in yellow and traces itself to its end.

"It goes for five blocks west and exits onto 20th street just outside District 15!" Uiharu responds. "Are there any cameras that cover that exit?" asks Kuroko. Uiharu types furiously on her keyboard. "YES! It faces right at the exit!" she says with authoritative excitement. "Bring it up! Let's see if we can catch him!" says Kuroko. Within a minute the video pops up and they start the video at 10:50pm. As the girls watch intently it soon reaches 11:30pm. Finally some activity. The door slowly opens. A head pokes out and looks around and finally the person exits quickly. "THERE HE IS!" says Kuroko. Uiharu stops the recording as he faces directly in the direction of the camera. She zooms in and makes the necessary adjustments and a full on frontal shot of his face appears. "WE GOT YOU, YOU BASTARD!" shouts Kuroko.

They've done it! They now have proof that the same person the witness saw at the restaurant was spotted both entering and exiting the alleyways where and around the time when Shima was murdered. "Konori-sempai we need to get this information to Anti-Skill at once!" says Kuroko. Mii, who had been quite all this time, looks noticeably upset though. "Konori-sempai?" says Uiharu. "I knew it… I knew I shouldn't have let Takanashi-san go all by herself. It's all my fault." says Mii looking like she's about to cry. "Konori-sempai. Don't think that way. You had nothing to do with this!" says Kuroko firmly. "But I should have accompanied her! I shouldn't have allowed a student to walk back home all alone like that. I should have at least called a taxi." says Mii. Kuroko gets a little upset. "Konori-sempai STOP IT! Do NOT blame yourself! You are a member of Judgment! You taught me that as a member of Judgment we have a duty to the preservation of peace and justice! We have found the person most likely to have killed Takanashi-san, and for her sake we MUST bring this person to justice! Blaming ourselves will get us NO WHERE! Now snap out of it!" says Kuroko with authority.

Mii sniffs for a second while looking at Kuroko's determined expression. What was she thinking!? Kuroko was right. As a member of Judgment she has a duty… no a need to bring Shima's killer to justice. She HAS to see this through. She wipes off her eyes. "You're right. I'm sorry for that…. Kazari-san! Put together a report including all the video evidence we've discovered about this suspect, and send it on to Anti-skill as soon as you can. They'll need this information ASAP." orders Mii. "YES MA'AM!" Uiharu responds. She quickly begins typing on the keyboard. "Shirai-san…. Thank you. Hopefully with this we can bring Takanashi-san's killer to justice." says Mii. "Think nothing of it. You would've said the same thing to me." says Kuroko. But as Mii goes to sit down and Kuroko turns round to watch Uiharu work on her report, something bothers her in the back of her mind. "Those emergency tunnels, they can only be accessed by Anti-Skill or Judgment personnel. How the hell did he get access to them? Something doesn't feel right." Kuroko thinks to herself.

As Kuroko thinks a phone call comes though on Mii's phone. She answers it. "Hello. 177th Judgment branch." She listens carefully. "Really!? You want us to come down right now? Weren't you going to have us wait for the reports?... Really!? That is odd. Ok sir. We'll head down there right now." says Mii. She hangs up. "What was that all about?" asks Kuroko. "That was the Anti-Skill coroner's office. They want us to come down immediately. They seem to have discovered something very disturbing that might be vital to the case." describes Mii. "Now? It must be really important. It's not every day that ordinary Judgment members like us get called to the coroner's office." says Kuroko. "Kazari-san you stay here and finish the report and send it when you're done. Shirai-san you're with me." says Mii. "Yes Ma'am!" come the duel replies. "I wonder what they could have found." says Kuroko with a little concern.

End of Chapter 1

To be Continued in Chapter 2: Railgun vs Aurora Canon.

Story Note: Two Mysterious murders, one creepy suspect. What's in store for our members of Judgment, especially Kuroko? How did their fellow member die exactly and what powers does this new enemy possess? Read soon to find out.

Another Note: So much for Chapter 1. This chapter went WAY longer than I had expected it to. I hope to get Chapter 2 out soon because I REALLY want to work on this fanfic more than ever. My brain won't let me stop thinking about it. So I hope it'll be good! See you all next Chapter!


	3. Railgun vs Aurora Canon

Disclaimer: I do not own Railgun or Index. They are the property of J.C. Staff. This is just a fanfiction.

**A CERTAIN AMERICAN HOWITZER**

**Chapter 2**

**Railgun vs. Aurora Canon**

September 28th, 4:00 PM. At Academy City's International Airport and test airbase in Terminal 3A, Judgment member Kuroko Shirai is standing near the gate looking out the window. She's watching as a large private jet from America taxis to the loading and unloading gate. She has a very irritated look on her face. "Good grief. Why did I get stuck with this job? Why do I have to babysit two Americans?" she says to herself in disgust. She thinks about what happened yesterday that lead to this point.

24 Hours before at the Anti-Skill coroner's office. As Mii and Kuroko enter the office located next to District 7's Heaven Canceller's Hospital, an Anti-Skill guard directs them to the meeting room. They follow his directions to a room that's the fifth door on the left. As they enter they notice about 30 theater chairs in three rows of ten spit in the middle by a few carpeted steps, set up in stadium seating style. They all face two very large windows. On the other side is the Autopsy Room with two bodies on tables, both draped in sheets, with only their feet sticking out. Each one has a name tag on their right big toes. Mii turns away as she sees the name on one of the body's. "Takanashi, Shima." Hanging from the ceiling directly in the middle of both windows is a large viewing monitor. As they enter the room they hear a familiar voice.

"Well hello. Nice to see you two again." says the voice. The two look over to the right and see the Inspector from the murder scenes earlier today standing with the familiar frog eyed doctor, Gaeshi Meido. The Inspector walks up to the two girls. "Ah detective. It is a pleasure to see you again. I take it you were also called here?" asks Mii. "I certainly was. The doctor here said it's quite important. And please it's Takano. Inspector Hiroki Takano. I guess we didn't properly introduce ourselves last time." he responds. "We'll it's pleasure Inspector Takano." says Mii politely. "So how goes your side of the investigation?" asks Inspector Takano. "Better than expected. We watched the videos from both scenes and found that the person the witness saw was in the area of both murders and, in fact, entered the alleys that would have put him at Takanashi-san's murder scene. Our other team member is putting a report together right now and it should be sent to Anti-Skill very soon." says Mii.

"Really!? So soon? That's impressive! We'll be able to send the info to the satellite cities worldwide this afternoon!" says Inspector Takano. "Ahem!" comes a cough from the doctor. "Ah. Sorry Doc." says the Inspector. "Dr. Meido it's nice to see you again." says Mii. "Nice to see you two also. Ah Shirai-san. And how are your wounds coming along?" asks the frog eyed doctor. "They're doing just fine. I'm not feeling anymore pain from my gunshot wound anymore, and there's barely a scar too. I am glad to finally be out of that wheelchair. Thanks for asking." says Kuroko. "Wait? You were shot?" says a stunned Inspector Takano. "Yeah. I got into a fight with another teleporter. She beat me pretty good and even shot me. I nearly lost my left kidney, but the doctor here saved it." answers Kuroko. Inspector Takano lets out an impressed whistle. "Excuse me but we need to get started." says Dr. Meido.

The Inspector and two girls take their seats on the second row as the lights dim. Dr. Meido stands under the viewing monitor with a remote and pushes a button. The monitor turns on and shows the scans of two brains. "Ahem. I called you all here because after I was asked to perform the autopsies on both victims by Anti-Skill because of the mysterious ways they died, and the urgency to find out how, I discovered something disturbing with both victims. After cat-scanning both victims first we quickly discovered something wrong with the victims' brains. I extracted both brains and discovered several heavily bruised areas." describes the doctor. "Bruised? You mean like after taking a blow to the head?" asks Inspector Takano. "No. As there was no external head trauma to either victim, and the bruising is vastly different from a concussion, that can be immediately ruled out." responds Dr. Meido.

"What's remarkable about the bruising is that, despite very minuet differences, they are identical in both victims." says the doctor. "Identical? How?" asks Mii. "I have no idea how, but it's more than likely related to your suspect's power. But that's not the disturbing part. When I took samples of the bruised areas and looked at them under a microscope, I found this." says Dr. Meido as he pushes a button on the remote. The monitor then displays pictures of something the others can't tell of what. "What are we looking at?" asks Kuroko. "These are brains cells, or more precisely what remains of them." answers Dr. Meido. He pushes another button and a picture of a healthy brain cell appears alongside the other ones. "As you can see all the neurons from the victims' brain cells are gone. Cut, teleported, I can't tell." says Dr. Meido.

"My God. What kind of power could do such damage?" asks Inspector Takano. "I do not know. I've never seen nor heard of this kind of ability before. This is beyond my experience. There's one last detail though. The bruised areas of each brain are located in the areas of the brain that deal with memory. Long term, Short term, and even Instinctual areas, all of them were pretty much destroyed." says Dr. Meido. Mii speaks up. "So what you're saying is…" "Basically, the massive damage caused their brains to essentially forget to live. And by the severity of the damage I can tell you it was probably extremely painful. A horrible way to go." says Dr. Meido with a sad expression and tone. This last bit of information upsets Mii though she holds it in. Kuroko on the other hand punches her hand. "I'd do anything to get my hands on that bastard responsible for this." she says in an angered tone as the lights come back up. Dr. Meido turns to Inspector Takano. "All this is in the report I handed you earlier. I also sent on a copy to Anti-Skill HQ." he says.

Thanks Doctor. I appreciate it." says Inspector Takano as his cellphone goes off. He checks the text message on its screen and turns to the girls. "That was Anti-Skill HQ, they just told me that the report your teammate was working on just got delivered and they're going to be sending out APBs to all the satellite cities around the world very soon. Hopefully we'll get a response soon." he says. "Well that's good. Let us know when you get any responses and if there's anything we can do to help." says Mii. "That's right. We feel we HAVE a responsibility to help catch that perpetrator. Takanashi-san was a friend and we want to help." adds Kuroko. Inspector Takano is impressed. "I admire your dedication. I'm sure we'll be able to find something you all can help with." he says. "Thank you for your time doctor. We appreciate all you've done." says Mii as she and Kuroko bow to him. "It's my job. Just be sure you three catch the person doing this. I don't want to see any more young people on these corner's tables." says Dr. Meido. "Right!" says Mii as all three salute and then leave.

6:30 PM. Mii and Kuroko have already been back at the 177th Judgment office for a while, when Mii's desk phone rings. She quickly answers it. "Hello? Oh hello Inspector Takano…. REALLY!? That quickly!?... Hmm?.. Alright." she says. She waves at Kuroko and Uiharu to join her. As they join her Mii pushes a button on the phone and hangs up the receiver. "Ok Inspector, go ahead." she says. "Can you all hear me ok?" he asks over speakerphone. "Yes sir." answers Mii. "Good. I have some good news. We've already gotten a response to our APB from the American Anti-Skill branch. They've identified the suspect as Damien Mitchem. He's a level 4 esper who escaped prison almost four months ago, and they've had a nationwide manhunt for him ever since. He was convicted on several accounts of murder and acts of terrorism. They don't know how he got to Japan, but they warned us that he is extremely dangerous because he can kill by simply touching someone. They have given us permission to shot him on sight if need be." says the Inspector.

"Kill by touch? How?" asks Uiharu. "I don't know, they didn't give me any details." answers Inspector Takano. "Well that's it then. If he's as dangerous as they say he is, then this will strictly be something Anti-Skill has to deal with. Judgment can't get involved in these kinds of cases." says Mii with a downed look. "Not necessarily. As we talked with Anti-Skill America they said they were immediately sending over the two people who caught him last time as experts and active members in the search. And get this. They are two young men from the American Judgment branch." he says. "JUDGMENT!? Two member's of Judgment caught this guy?" asks Kuroko in amazement. "Yes. I was a little shocked too when I heard it. They are both level 4 espers too. Which brings me to the point of why I called you. We've decided to have a member of Judgment be our representative and guide while they are here." says the Inspector. "I wonder who they got to do that job." asks Kuroko to herself.

"Shirai-san was it?" asks Inspector Takano. "Yes?" responds Kuroko. "We've decided that YOU will be that representative." says the Inspector. "WHAT!? ME!?" she says in stunned disbelief. "Yes. We've already cleared it with Judgment HQ." says Inspector Takano. "But why me? I'm sure there are more qualified people!" says Kuroko. "Not really. Both the Judgment members from America are about your age anyway so someone of their age would be better to work with. Also, your records show that you have excellent grades in English and have shown to be very fluent in the language. You're the perfect candidate from the 177th branch for this job. And besides, you impressed me earlier at the coroner's office. You said you had a need to catch this guy for your friend who he killed. Well, here's your and the 177th branch's chance to do so. They'll be arriving at the airport at around 4:00 PM tomorrow afternoon. Please be there to greet them. Good luck." says Inspector Takano as he then hangs up. Kuroko is left standing there in disbelief with an extremely stunned look on her face. She then facepalms and moans.

Back in the present Kuroko has facepalmed in the exact same position. "Me and my big mouth. Why do I have to do this and be around MEN no less?" she says. She looks up as she hears some people coming down the unloading gate. After a few businessmen walk out with, who she can only guess to be their wives or secretaries, two young men enter the terminal. When Kuroko first sees them she thinks the same thing as most Japanese do when they first see Americans. "Americans sure are tall." she thinks to herself. They have to easily be a full head to a head and a half taller than she is. They're obviously with Judgment. Wearing the uniform of the only Junior High School in the satellite city in America, brownish-green kakis with white dress shirts, and the American Judgment armband on their sleeves, they stand out pretty well. The armband isn't all that different from Academy City Judgment's version. But instead of it being green with white stripes, theirs is blue with white stripes. And the shield emblem is faced in the American flag. Kuroko never understood why Americans had to put their flag on everything they made. They use it more like a logo.

Before approaching them she takes a moment to look them over. You can never be too careful around monkey men. One of them has neatly combed brown hair and dark brown eyes. His uniform shirt and pants seem to be neatly done, like trying to make a good first impression. He looks rather average though and he seems to have a calm demeanor about him. However his companion… not so much. He has longish blonde hair done in a shaggy style parted bowl cut making his hair hang halfway down his ears and he has sunglasses on. The top button on his shirt is undone exposing the very top of his chest. He seems to be rather excited and is pointing out various objects that she can't really trace to where. "Well might as well get this over with." she says to herself.

As she approaches the two, they both notice and face her. The blonde one has a rather goofy yet flirty grin. "He's going to be trouble I bet." she says to herself. She clears her throat and begins speaking in rather good English. "Welcome to Academy City gentlemen. My name is Kuroko Shirai and I'll be representing Academy City's Judgment branch while you are here." she says rather well. She thinks the first thing that they're going to say is a compliment about how well she speaks English. But she's in for a shock. "Ah thank you Shirai-san. We appreciate you coming here to greet us." says the brown haired American in perfect Japanese! Kuroko's eyes are wide open in surprise. "Heh. I don't think she was expecting us to be speaking Japanese." says the blonde American, also in Japanese. "Oh sorry about that Shairi-san. But since Academy City is the first esper city, all the other satellite cities are required to teach Japanese as a foreign language." says the brown haired one.

Shaking off her surprise she once again puts on her rather cold serious look. "I see. Well that will make things easier. Might I have your names please since we will be working together?" she asks. "Oh certainly. I'm Justin. Justin McNeil. I'm 13 and it's a pleasure to met and work with you Shirai-san." says the brown haired American as he extends his hand out. She knows he wants her to shake his hand, but she keeps her arms crossed with the same serious expression. His voice though has an interesting accent to it. She recognizes it as being a southern American accent; probably from the Appalachia region. Justin slowly and awkwardly pulls his hand back.

"Wow. Cold reception dude." says the blonde American. Kuroko looks his way with the same cold stare. His accent obviously like that of an American west coast surfer, slang and all. "Well I'm Travis. Travis Clinton. I'm 14, and might I say you are a cute one." he says with that flirty grin and his fingers to his chin. "Yep. Trouble." says Kuroko to herself. She glances at Justin and he has that "Not again!" kind of expression. Travis however leans in a little closer. "Say Miss Shirai. What do you say you and I have dinner later this evening? I'm sure you know the best restaurants around here for dating." he says as he pulls down his sunglasses revealing, not blue eyes as Kuroko expected, but bright emerald colored eyes.

Kuroko's anger vain appears and she's in the right mind to flip him over with her teleportation powers and have him land on his head. She HATES being hit on by a man. She's about to do that when Justin grabs Travis' shoulder and pulls him back. "Ok. That's enough Casanova. Hitting on the local girls is not why we're here you know. We have more important matters to attend to now." says Justin calmly but firmly. "Oh lighten up Justin! You know I've always wanted to date a cute Japanese schoolgirl. I thought I would start now." says Travis in protest. But before Justin can stop him, Travis once again leans in towards Kuroko. "So Miss Shirai, what do you say?" he asks again. Kuroko holds up one of her signature spikes in front of his face. Travis looks right at it when it disappears. "Oh that was a neat little trick! Is that your esper power? Making things disappear?" he asks with a curious flirtatious smile.

Kuroko then points down. Travis looks down and, there though the crotch of his pants, is the spike, having barely missed some… vital areas. "HOLY SHIT!" he screams as he jumps back. "You're a freaking teleporter!? What the hell!? You almost hit something important!" he shouts in shock. "Before you say anything else, even I know the importance of continuing the species though procreation, but I'm only going to warn you ONCE. If you EVER hit on me again, the next one will skewer all three parts that make up your reproductive system. GOT IT!?" says Kuroko in a serious an angered tone. Travis takes a step back. "Man you are one crazy chick!" he says out loud. "I tried to warn you man." says Justin. Justin then turns to Kuroko. "I apologize for my friend Shirai-san. Please excuse him. If you could please take us to your branch office we can get started with our investigation and search." he says politely.

Kuroko lets out a sigh. "At least one of these monkeys seems to have a set of manners." she thinks to herself. "Fine. Come with me." she says. They all get into a taxi outside the airport and take a 30 minute ride to the 177th Judgment branch office. They make their way up the steps and Kuroko opens the door. "I'm back." she calls out. "Welcome back Shirai-san." says Mii. Mii sees to two boys enter the office. "Is this them?" she asks. "Yes." says Kuroko still with annoyed look. "Oi Kuroko, I've been waiting for you." comes a familiar voice from the small seating area. From around the corner a short brown haired girl comes into view. "ONEE-SAMA!" says Kuroko with relief as she sees Misaka Mikoto. *SHAWOOSH!* She immediately teleports over to Mikoto and wraps her arms around her waist. "Oh! Onee-sama! It's been terrible! I've had to put up with these two monkeys ever since the airport! The blonde one even tried to hit on me!" complains Kuroko.

"Oi! Get off me! That's partially why I'm here!" says Mikoto as she tries pushing Kuroko off of her. "Well that explains a lot." says Travis in English still with his big goofy smile as her realizes why Kuroko seems to hate men. "Monkeys?" says Justin to himself. "What do you mean?" asks Kuroko back to Mikoto. "I mean Ryoukan is VERY upset with you right now. After all you left a note for her telling her you were going to go pick up a couple of boys and may be back late. Especially right after school." says Mikoto. "I specifically wrote on the note that it was an assignment from Judgment that I was taking them to our branch office to help on a case." says Kuroko. "Well you know how she is. Always jumping to radical conclusions." says Mikoto. Kuroko lets out another sigh. "So it's only you three at this branch?" asks Justin. Mii and Mikoto are also a little shocked to hear one of them speaking perfect Japanese. But Mii responds anyway. "Um no. She isn't part of Judgment. She's Shirai-san's friend. We do have a third member, but she had to stay behind at her school today to make up a test she missed last week when she was sick. Her name is Uiharu Kazari. She should be back tomorrow." she explains.

"Is this them?" asks Mikoto. Kuroko nods her head. "Hmm. Hello then. I'm Misaka Mikoto. Nice to meet you. So you're American espers huh?" says Mikoto. "Misaka Mikoto? Now where have I heard that name before? I know I've seen her face somewhere too." says Justin to himself. "And I'm Mii Konori. I'm the Chief here." says Mii. "It's a pleasure to meet you both." says Justin. Travis approaches Mikoto. Then he does something unexpected… or expected, however you want to see it. He grabs Mikoto's left hand and kisses the back of it. Kuroko's hair goes all frizzy in shock. "Hello there Miss Mikoto. I'm Travis Clinton. And might I say you are a beautiful woman. Would you like to go out on a date tonight?" asks Travis. Mikoto's anger vein appears this time. Justin sees trouble coming. "Um Travis you might want to-" *SHAWOOSH!* ***WHAM!*** ***CRASH!*** "DON'T FLIRT WITH MY ONEE-SAMA!" screams Kuroko as she teleports and dropkicks Travis in the side of the head causing him to go flying over to Kuroko's desk, crash headlong into her office chair, and hit the ground hard.

Justin facepalms at his friend's "mistake" while Kuroko breaths heavily in anger. As Travis slowly gets up, while moaning and holding his head which has a large bright-red whelping knot on the side of it, Justin FINALLY remembers the name Misaka Mikoto. "Damn Miss Shirai, you hit hard. But there was no need to do that." says Travis. "Well consider yourself lucky Travis." says Justin. "And HOW is THIS lucky!?" he blurts out as he points to the knot. "That girl you were just flirting with is Misaka Mikoto." says Justin. "Yeah? And?" asks Travis. *Sigh* "She just happens to be third strongest of the seven level 5s in the city and the strongest Electomaster in the world. A.K.A. 'The Railgun.' You're lucky you only got a kick to head instead of being fried to a crisp." says Justin. Travis's mouth opens in shock as he faces Mikoto again. She holds up a finger and a few small electric sparks zap out from it. "Uh… right… I'll remember that next time." Travis says in a goofy tone while nursing his sore head. "All right then. I think that's enough violence in here Shirai-san. Ok. Don't you think you two should formally introduce yourselves now?" says Mii.

"Ah. Right." says Justin as Travis slowly makes it way over to him. "I'm Justin McNeil. I'm a level 4 esper from the American Judgment branch. You can just call me Justin since it's easy to pronounce. I can control magnetic fields in most metals. I'm looking forward to working with everyone here, and I hope we all get along." finishes Justin. "Well you already know my name now. I'm Travis and I'm also a Level 4 esper. My ability is called 'Silicon Slip.' I can control anything with the element silicon in them." says Travis. He holds out his hand to the sink and a drinking glass hops off the counter next to it and flies over to his hand where it begins to 'orbit.' "I hope we work well together as well." he says with a two fingered salute. Travis makes the glass set back down on the counter. However the words "can control magnetic fields" gets Mikoto's attention. "Justin-san, you said you could control magnetic fields?" asks Mikoto. "Yes. In most metals. I can lift and throw heavy metal objects. Pull metal towards or away from me or even crush them too." explains Justin.

"Hmm. Interesting. Do you have any signature moves?" asks Mikoto. "Well I uh… actually I do, b-" "Are you kidding!? This guy's gotta move similar to your railgun, Miss Railgun. In fact it may be even stronger! Isn't that right Justin?" asks Travis interrupting Justin. "Uh, yeah but-" "Very interesting." says Mikoto with a smirk on her face. "You're damn right! And you should see this guy when he has to fight. He becomes downright scary!" says Travis as he arm-necks Justin. "Come on Travis. Enough. I don't think they want to hear my life's story." says Justin. But before he can pull away from Travis' arm-necking, Mikoto smirks. "Ok then Justin-san!" she says as she points to him. "I challenge you to a duel!" she says out loud. Both Justin and Travis look at Mikoto in stunned confusion. "Huh?" they both say in unison. "You said that you can control magnetic fields in metals. Well I want to test your skills against mine in a duel!" says Mikoto with authority.

Before Justin can even react to her challenge, Kuroko speaks up. "ONEE-SAMA! Are you SERIOUSLY challenging someone to fight you, right in the middle of a Judgment branch office, and right in front of Judgment members!? You know fighting is illegal! And even if you did fight what would happen to that beautiful smooth clean skin of yours!?" shouts Kuroko. "Eh…" Mikoto mumbles. "How many times do I have to tell you Onee-sama, that you're going to get into a lot of trouble with the law if you keep challenging people to fight you!?" Kuroko gets closer and points at her. "I only wanted to test my powers against his!" Mikoto tries to counter. "That's not the point here! I can't count how many times you've challenged someone to fight you just so you could, 'test your powers!' You're going to end up in really big trouble if you keep doing so!" says Kuroko back. "Who are you to dictate who I can and can't challenge!?" says Mikoto. "I can because I'm a member of Judgment!" fires back Kuroko.

Justin can see this little argument could quickly get out of control and thus speaks up. "Ok then Misaka-san! I accept your challenge!" he answers. This shuts both girls right up and it's Kuroko who has a face of shock this time. "Eh!?" she mumbles with a "what the hell did he just say?" look on her face. "But Shirai-san is right. Fighting is illegal. However if all you want is to test my abilities, I'm sure you have testing facilities here in Academy City where we can COMPARE our abilities against one another without having to fight." says Justin. Mikoto looks at him for a moment then stands up strait, puts her hands in her hips, and smiles confidently. "Alright then, that sounds good. You're on! And I know just the place!" she says as she gives a wink.

30 minutes later Kuroko, Mikoto, Justin, and Travis are all standing in front of the front gate to Tokiwadai all girls' middle school. Evening is quickly coming and the school is bathed in an orangey glow. Travis lets out an impressed whistle. "So this is the most prestigious school in all of Academy city? And it's an all girls' school to boot. Heh. Maybe I can find a nice rich Japanese girl here to be my girlfriend." he brags. Kuroko grimaces hard at that statement. "Will you please not try and flirt with any girls you see here? You were incredibly lucky that you got permission to even enter the Secret Garden area of Academy City. It's even rarer to have boys be allowed on the premises of the school. Please try not to spoil your once in a lifetime opportunity to even be here and embarrasses us." Kuroko demands. Travis glances over at her and can see she's dead serious. "Okay. Okay. I'll keep it under wraps Miss Shirai." says Travis with a shrug.

As the group enters the school grounds Justin speaks up. "So Misaka-san, where are we going?" he asks. "The pool." she responds. "Why there?" asks Justin in a bit of surprise. "Well despite having some of the best testing facilities in Academy City, even Tokiwadai finds it difficult to test level 5 espers. The only place on the school grounds where I can go to test my railgun is the pool where there's enough water to absorb the impact." she explains. "I see. Makes sense. I just hope there's enough to absorb my ability." responds Justin. Mikoto looks at him with a little disbelief. As they head to the pool an announcement comes over the intercom. DON DON DON DOON! "Attention all students in and around the sport facilities. Misaka-san will be testing her railgun abilities in just a few moments at the pool. Please be prepared for loud shockwaves and a strong concussion force in the area. And please take the necessary precautions to lock down all lose items and equipment in the area. Thank you." finishes the announcement.

"I guess you have to warn the school when you're going to be practicing huh?" says Travis. "Yeah. I don't want to scare the jeepers out of everyone in the school when I do. Unfortunately warning everyone has a side-effect." says Mikoto. It takes them a couple more minutes to reach and pool, then everyone sees why there's a side-effect. There behind the fence is a group of about 25 girls all waiting to see Tokiwadai's ace fire off her signature move. At first they cheer when they see her, but quickly quite down when they see the two boys with her and Kuroko. Whispers begin to spread around the group. "Why are those boys here?" "Who are they?" "Why are they with Misaka-san and Shirai-san?" go back and forth through the group. The group of four enter the pool area.

"This is where we'll be testing our moves against each other." says Mikoto as she points to the pool. Justin gives a small grimace. "Hmm this may not be enough water for my ability." he says calmly. "This is an Olympic size swimming pool! It easily catches Onee-sama's railgun tests and she has the strongest attack out of anyone here! It's more than enough!" berates Kuroko. "Yeah! Don't under estimate our ace!" "She's amazing! How dare you think yourself better than her!" "I've seen her tests! If you think you can beat her you're sadly mistaken!" come shouts of disagreement from the crowd of girls. Justin relents. "Okay. Okay. Fine! I didn't mean any insult. We'll have the tests here. Ladies first." he responds as he motions to the pool to Mikoto in a gentlemanly way. Mikoto smirks. "Thank you!" she says.

She and Kuroko walk over to the edge of the pool while the boys stay under the covered stands to the right of the pool. Kuroko carries an umbrella alongside Mikoto. "You can do it Misaka-san!" "Show him who's boss!" "Make him pay for thinking he is better than you!" come calls from the crowd. Mikoto smirks again as she pulls out one of her tokens. She takes a breath and then closes her eyes to concentrate for a moment. She opens them and flips the token high into the air. Everything seems to slow down as electrical sparks pulse out of her body, mainly from her extended right arm. A noticeable hum goes through the air as she rapidly powers up. The token begins to fall back down. The hum rapidly indentifies as more and stronger pulses of electricity flow into her arm. Finally the token reaches her hand again and she thumps it hard.

*KASHAWWWWW-KASPLOOOUUUURSH!* A bright orange beam seems to shoot from Mikoto's hand and a split second later impacts the water with a mightily blast sending a massive geyser rising about 30 meters into the air. Supersonic shockwaves pulse out from the beam and a large gust of wind fills the entire area causing all the girls behind the fence to hold down their skirts and hair. The ground also shakes from the impact. The shaking and shockwaves quickly pass and Kuroko opens up the umbrella and holds it over herself and Mitoko. A second later and mini rain storm falls from the sky and ends a few seconds later. A collective cheer comes from the group of girls behind the fence. Justin and Travis both look on with impressed expressions. "Quite impressive. I can see why she's the Number three Level 5." says Travis.

*BUZZZZZ* "Initial muzzle velocity 1032 meters per second. Charge time 1.2 seconds. Test level, Level 5." comes a computerized voice announcing the results. "Slightly over 3,700 KPH. A little over Mach 3. Not bad." says Travis. "Indeed. The downside is now there's less water in the pool to absorb the impact of my ability." says Justin. "Don't worry. If any pieces of concrete and dirt fly out, I'll make sure it stays contained in the pool." says Travis. Mikoto takes a deep breath of confidence and turns to the boys. "How about that!? Think you can really best that?" she shouts proudly as she places her hands on her hips. "You tell them Misaka-san!" "Yeah!" comes more shouts. "We'll see." says Justin back. As Justin and Travis head down as Mikoto and Kuroko head up to the stands, Mikoto pulls out one of her tokens. "Need some ammo?" she asks confidently. "No thanks. I brought my own." Justin responds. Kuroko hands over the umbrella to Travis with a sour look on her face. "This guy just keeps insulting my Onee-sama! If it wasn't for the fact that I have to work with him to find this Damian, I would have stuck a spike though his lips already." she says as she grinds her teeth a little.

Justin and Travis take their positions where Mikoto and Kuroko had been. It's now that the girls behind the fence realize these are no ordinary foreigners. Foreigners are nothing new to Academy City; in fact it's commonplace. Many of the girls of Tokiwadai are foreigners themselves. But it's now that they notice they're from the American Judgment Branch by their armbands. Seeing members of foreign branches of law enforcement in Academy City IS rare. Then more whispers begin to float around in the crowd of girls. "What are members of the American Judgment Branch doing here?" "Do they know Shirai-san?" "Is one of them her boyfriend?" "No that's not possible, she likes Misaka-san remember?" "Maybe one is Misaka-san's boyfriend." "Fool! Don't go saying that! She's too good for them!" comes some whispers from the crowd. Justin just ignores it while Travis can't help but give a big goofy grin.

Justin then turns around and speaks to the girls. "You girls may want to get some distance from me. This is going to be big and I wouldn't want anyone to get hurt or soaking wet." he says. Many of the girls then begin to laugh. "Who is this guy?" "Who does he think he is thinking we'd get hurt from a weaker attack!?" "I think we'll be just fine thank you!" come shouts back. Justin shrugs. "Alight then. I did warn you. Whatever happens is your fault." he says. All he gets is more laughs in return. He then turns back, reaches into his pocket, and pulls out a clear plastic baggie of some kind that's tied at the top. He reaches in and pulls out what looks like a shinny marble about ½ inch in diameter. "What is that?" asks Kuroko. "Whoa… This guy uses some serious ammo. That's a chromium-steal ball bearing. Heh, this may be more interesting than I thought." says Mikoto with a smirk.

"Now let me clarify something first Shirai-san. This school does have insurance in case some of its property is damaged during esper testing correct!?" asks Justin with a small smile. "Of course it does! But I can't see how that would apply to you!" she shouts back in irritation at such a question. "Good grief he sure sounds confidant that he can beat you, doesn't he?" says Kuroko to Mikoto. Mikoto just shrugs. Justin holds out his hand and the ball bearing begins to the float above his palm. He then balls his fist and extends his index finger, to which the ball bearing then floats over to the tip. He takes a breath of concentration and begins to focus. The ball bearing begins to spin parallel to his finger, though at a distance you couldn't tell because of its mirror finish. "Tsk!" Mikoto feels a sharp pain in her head as a few small electric bolts buzz through her hair. Justin notices and immediately grabs the ball bearing out of the air. The sparks coming from Mikoto's head immediately stop.

"Oh! Sorry Misaka-san. I forgot to mention that when I alter the magnetic fields in metals, it tends to disrupt the electrical flow that nearby Electromasters produce from their bodies. I recommend that you concentrate all your electrical energy to your feet and ground yourself. I've found out that's what helps Electromasters the most." explains Justin. "Alright." she says calmly. In a couple of seconds some small sparks appear around Mikoto's feet as she grounds herself to the metal reinforcement in the concrete of the viewing stands. Justin once again has the ball bearing float in front of his finger and it begins to spin again. This time Mitoko doesn't feel a thing…. except surprise. Unlike most other Electromasters she can actually see magnetic fields. And what she's seeing is amazing. "Whoa…" she mumbles. "What is it onee-sama?" asks Kuroko. "He wasn't kidding when he said he can manipulate magnetic fields in metal objects. He's actually tightly focusing the magnetic field of the ball bearing into one spot just in front of his finger and then twisting them. Not even I can do that!" says Mikoto in astonishment.

Kuroko looks back at Justin with an equal amount of astonishment. "Now the magnetic field is spiraling around his arm!" says Mikoto with her eyes wide open. After a few more seconds, everyone else is in for another surprise. Around Justin's wrist and elbow, two cone shaped colorful displays begin to slowly spin in brilliant colors of red, green, and blue. "Auroras!?" shouts Kuroko in surprise. Everyone in the crowd behind the fence is now silent with amazement as they look on. The Auroras begin to spin faster and faster and extend further up his arm eventually merging into one long cone shaped light display extending about six inches above his skin. While all the girls are mesmerized by the light display, Mikoto herself is even more astonished because she can see the magnetic fields spinning in ways and speeds she never knew was possible.

Finally, after what seems like an eternity, Justin lets the ball bearing fly. ***SHAW-KABLAOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUSSHHHH!*** There's a flash of bright white light followed almost instantaneously by an almighty blast on a much greater scale than the one from Mikoto's railgun. The ground shakes violently from the impact and Kuroko nearly gets knocked off her feet. Many of the girls behind the fence though do get knocked off their feet. There are screams and yells of absolute fright coming from the crowd but are drowned out by the hypersonic shockwaves. After several long seconds the shaking and shockwaves dissipate and Travis quickly puts up the umbrella. As the girls behind the fence try to gather themselves, they're suddenly inundated by what can only be called as a cross between a monsoon and a Tsunami of water. More yells and yelps quickly follow. After a few more seconds the falling water stops to reveal that everything within a 30 meter radius of the pool not under a roof has been completely drenched, including all the girls behind the fence.

Justin and Travis, still relatively dry thanks to the umbrella, turn around to see if they can help anyone. Justin quickly spins back around when they both notice many of the girls' clothing have now become see through. Travis, however, doesn't spin back around. "My. My. What a wonderful sight this is." he gloats. The girls, realizing their clothes' now see-through condition, scream, cover themselves, and quickly begin running away in the direction of their dorms. "Ah. What a shame. It was a nice view." says Travis. *Shawoosh* *KERPUNCH!* Travis gets knocked onto his butt then Kuroko comes teleporting in and punches him in the side of the head. "PERVERTED DUMBASS!" she calls out. Travis thrusts his fist in the air from the ground. "WORTH IT!" he calls back. *Clap Clap Clap* Justin looks over to see Mikoto coming down from the stands doing a modest clap.

"That was quiet impressive Justin-san. I underestimated you. I admit that was far more than anyone expected." she says as she reaches the others. *BUZZZZZZ* "Initial muzzle velocity, 3403 meters per second. Charge time, 25.7 seconds. Rank Level, Level 4." comes the computerized voice. "MACH 10!? You fired that off at mach 10!? How is it you're not a level 5 esper with that!?" shouts Kuroko in flabbergasted shock. "Simple." says Mikoto. "It's his charge time." she adds. "Indeed. I'm sad to say my charge time is way too long. I've been stuck at level 4 because of it. I've tried so hard to improve my charging time, but I can't get it below 25 seconds. Even though Misaka-san's railgun is slower and less powerful than my Aurora Canon, she can fire hers off at eight shots a minute, compared to my messily two shots at most." explains Justin. "Aurora canon?" asks Mikoto. "Yeah, it's what people call it because of the Aurora Borealis that forms around my arm as I'm preparing to fire." explains Justin.

"Speaking of which what caused those to form?" asks Kuroko. "Well, I'll have to explain how my Aurora Canon works first." says Justin. "You know what sunspots are right?" he asks. "Yeah. They're areas on the sun of intense twisted magnetism." says Mikoto. "Exactly. And as you must know when these twisted magnetic fields snap, it causes a massive amount of energy to be released in the form of a solar flare or even a coronal mass ejection." says Justin. The two girls nod their heads.

"My Aurora Canon works much in the same way. I'm able to concentrate the magnetic field of a piece of metal into one point the size of about five microns. I make it spin to twist the fields together. As the magnetic fields get twisted faster and faster it super-charges the electrons in the air atoms and causes them to flow away from the ball bearing and up my arm. But since no one's arm is one smooth form they tend to get disrupted and give off energy when they go over my wrist and elbow. This disruption causes them to release that energy in the form of a photon which causes the auroras. As the twisting gets stronger and the magnetic pressure builds higher, the flow of electrons gets faster and thus the auroras get bigger until they cover my entire arm. When they meet I know I have enough magnetic energy built up to fire the ball bearing." finishes explaining Justin.

"That is really impressive! I might have to try something like that one day." says Mikoko. Travis finally gets up off the ground. "Maybe, but as you can see the energy released is phenomenal. And the resulting damage is not exactly easy to clean up." he says as he points. The group finally turns to face the pool to see the impact of the Aurora Canon. The pool's storage building is the first thing they notice. All of its windows have been completely blown out and its door has been caved in pretty badly too. Some of the fencing has been bent and even some windows on the nearby Gymnasium have been blown out as well. But it's obvious to everyone that the pool took the brunt of the damage. Almost all the water has been blasted or vaporized out of the pool. All around its parameter are large cracks. And not just cracks in the paint, but long, deep cracks in the foundation and walls. But the biggest damage is a meter wide crater on the bottom edge on the opposite side of the pool with spider web like cracks spreading out from it. It still has steam, and dust wafting out of it with what's left of the water in the pool draining out through it. "I knew there wasn't enough water." says Justin.

"Ha Chaaa. Mrs. Unabara isn't going to like this." says Mikoto as she places her hand on her head. "I think you over did it dude." says Travis with mild concern. "Well what was I supposed to do? Throw the match? I don't think Misaka-san would have liked me doing that." says Justin. "Damn strait." retorts Mikoto. "Besides, they told me this school has insurance in case of property damage." adds Justin. "Just because we have the insurance doesn't mean we like to use it!" banters Kuroko. There's a momentary silence before the group giggles at the good point Kuroko just made. "By the way…" says Travis. "Who won the match?" he says. "Well that's easy. Onee-sama got level 5 on her results, but monkey number 1 only got level 4, so Onee-sama is the winner." states Kuroko. "I don't know. When it comes to sheer destructive power, Justin has me beat." says Mikoto. "Maybe, but you're able to rapid fire your railgun, which would put me at a distinct disadvantage if we actually did fight." says Justin. "Draw?" says Travis. Mikoto and Justin look at each other and grin. "Draw." they both say in unison.

Travis then checks his watch. "Whoa. Look at the time. We need to head back to our hote-" as he looks to his right he notices something and he stops mid-sentence. "Hey… Do you guys notice that column of smoke rising over the cityscape?" he asks as he points into the air. They all look and sure enough a large blackish-brown column of smoke is rising from somewhere in the city. "I wonder what's going on." says Kuroko to herself. Suddenly her phone goes off. She answers it on the second ring. "Hello?... Yes Konori-sempai?... WHAT!?" nearly shouts Kuroko. "Right!... Right!... We'll be there as soon as we can. We'll meet you there." She quickly hangs up and turns to Travis and Justin. "There's been a terrorist attack in the city. All law enforcement has been called in. That includes you two. Come on!" she orders. "I'm sorry Onee-sama! I wish I could stay with you longer, but this is an emergency!" she lovingly laments. "Yeah. It's fine. Just go." says Mikoto with a sweat drop. "Well it was a nice match Misaka-san. And it was nice to meet you too." says Justin. "You too. I'm going to want a rematch one day." she answers. "Right. Hopefully next time I can match you better." says Justin. "HEY! Monkey number 1! Hurry it up!" demands Kuroko coming back to the gate. "Right!" he calls back. The three exit the pool area and begin running to the school gate.

End of Chapter 2

To be continued in Chapter 3: Target One Destroyed.

Story Note: Help has come from America to help track down this Damian Mitchem. What powers does he posses, and how will this help be able to stop him? One of them has incredible destructive power to rival and even surpass Mikoko's railgun. What's in for our threesome of Judgment members and what's happened at this "terrorist" attack? Look for the next chapter soon to find out!

Author Note: Ok I'm not going to make any excuses here. I've been very distracted by life and have had little urge to actually write more fanfics. HOWEVER do not take this as a sign that I'm quitting fanfiction, I'm not. But with less urging to write there will be fewer chapters released from me in the future. Maybe a max of 3 chapters a year. As such I have discontinued several of my stories and have put others on hold as I write this one. Please deal with my less productivity for a good while. And don't expect the next chapter in the next couple of week, but please look forward to it.. See you next Chapter!


	4. Target One Destroyed

Disclaimer: I do not own Railgun or Index. They are the property of JC Staff. This is just a fanfiction.

**A CERTAIN AMERICAN HOWETSER**

**Chapter 3**

**Target One Destroyed**

September 28th, 6:15 pm. It's taken Kuroko, Justin, and Travis almost 45 minutes to reach the area of the terrorist attack by Taxi. And even then all the chaos has caused the streets for blocks around to come to a grinding halt. Off just a few blocks away they can see the smoke raising over the city in the waning light of dusk. A few Anti-skill officers are trying desperately to direct traffic, but things are so chaotic the traffic is barely moving in any direction. "I don't think we're going to get there by car." says Travis. Kuroko and Justin glace at each other and come to the same conclusion without saying a word. "Looks like we'll have to go the rest of the way in by foot." adds Justin.

The three get out of the taxi, pay the driver, and begin running to the scene on foot. "What do you think happened?" asks Travis as they continue running. "I don't know, but it looks like a building may be on fire near to the windowless building. Maybe a bomb went off and has set a few floors on fire." suggests Kuroko. "Damnit. If I didn't have to drag these two monkeys along I'd be there by now." says Kuroko to herself as she wishes she could just teleport there. Thankfully she is still in shape to run the rest of the way. It takes the three another 15 minutes and six congested blocks to reach the scene. As they get closer they notice that all power in the area seems to have been cut, as there are no lights on in the nearby buildings or the traffic lights. All they can see are the flashing lights of emergency vehicles and ground search lights coming on ahead.

They finally reach the scene, but what they find when they arrive makes them wish that it was just a building on fire. Instead there's no building there to be on fire. All they find is a large pile of rubble sunken mostly into a giant hole with a massive amount of smoke billowing out from it. Anti-Skill, Fire departments, Paramedics, Judgment, and other emergency responders from all around the city seem to have descended upon this scene of massive devastation and are in the beginning stages of a massive rescue operation. "My God! What the hell happened here?" says Justin in amazement. Kuroko thinks the same thing. "Oi! Shirai-san! Justin-san! Travis-san!" comes a call from ahead of them. They look up and see Mii waving at them to come over.

With her they can see Inspector Takano along with Lieutenant Yomikawa and Sergeant Tsuzuri alongside her. They quickly run up to them. "Ah! So I take it these are the two American Judgment members?" asks Inspector Takano. "They are." answers Kuroko. "Hello. I'm Travis Clinton." "And I'm Justin McNeil." say the two boys as they introduce themselves. "It's nice to meet you two. I'm Inspector Hiroki Takano. I wish our first meeting were under better circumstances though. This is Lt. Aiho Yomikawa and Sergeant Tessou Tsuzuri." says Takano. The two women give a short bow. "Sorry we can't properly introduce ourselves, but as you can see it's pretty chaotic right now." says Lt. Yomikawa.

"What the hell happened here?" asks Kuroko. "We're still assessing the situation Shirai-san, but right now our top priority is trying to get a rescue operation going. We've confirmed that there were people were still inside." explains Lt. Yomikawa. "Which building was this and how many people were inside?" asks Kuroko quickly. "It's the headquarters of F.I.X.E.D. corp. and according to their last security system log that was sent to Anti-Skill before the building suddenly collapsed, it said there was 286 people still inside." describes Lt. Yomikawa. "That was F.I.X.E.D. corp!? Their building was 28 stories!" says Kuroko in shock. "It is. It's a miracle this suspected attack took place when it did. There's usually over 3,000 people inside at any given part of the work day." explains Sgt. Tsuzuri.

"What is Fixed?" asks Justin. Kuroko turns to him. "You know, the Fujitsu International eXperimentation for Esper Development Corporation. They are the largest company in Academy City dedicated to the research and development of Esper abilities! They have company buildings in all the other satellite cities. Don't you have one in America?" asks Kuroko with some shock. "Oh, them! We just call them Fujitsu corp." says Justin. "Oh that's right. They call themselves Fujitsu corp. overseas don't they." says Mii. "So does anyone know exactly how the building fell?" asks Justin next. "No not yet. We're only in the beginning stages of rescue operations since that takes priority. We do know that there were people in the top floors so we're going to try and start with them first. After that we can begin the investigation." says Inspector Takano. Travis speaks up. "Sir. Then let me and Justin help. I'm sure our powers can be of help." he says.

"No. The rubble and ground are still unstable right now. We have to shore up the area around it before we can implement any heavy machinery to start lifting rubble. Besides you two don't have any training in disasters like this." answers Inspector Takano. "Sir. I can manipulate magnetic fields in metals and Travis here can control the element silicon. There's plenty of steel reinforcement and concrete in that rubble for us to move heavy pieces out of the way while you try and get the machinery ready. Combining our powers we can continuously lift just over 9,000 Kilos (10 tons). And if anything should become unstable we can keep it stable. Also we HAVE been trained for this kind of situation. After 9/11 all law enforcement, emergency responders, firefighters, and the like are trained for search and rescue in collapsed building situations. That includes us Judgment members. And also doesn't every minute count in this kind of situation?" explains Justin. Inspector Takano grunts with a small grimace on his face.

"He's right sir. Every minute does count and their powers would be a tremendous help. The more time we spend here discussing it the less time survivors in the rubble have." explains Mii. Inspector Takano sighs in defeat. "Okay fine. You're right. BUT you're not going in there without proper protection first and there needs to be some emergency personnel with you to help pull out victims." explains Takano. "Yes we will need protective gear, but there's no need to risk more people. Shirai-san you should come with us." says Justin. "What!? Why me!?" she nearly shouts in surprise. "Your teleportation power would be more useful than rescue personnel trying to pull someone out. Any victims we find or people trapped under some rubble that's too heavy to lift, you can get them out much faster. Plus you'll be able to move some of the smaller rubble out of the way faster." explains Justin. Kuroko hesitates for a second because she'd have to work with boys, but quickly relents. "Given the circumstances I can't argue with you. People's lives come first." she says.

After quickly dawning some fire retardant clothes and some breathing masks, the three quickly head over to the rubble pile mostly sunken into a giant hole. They take a quick glace around to see what their best approach should be. Some fire fighters are already near the end spraying down the pile. But smoke and dust still billow out of the pile and it's everywhere, hampering their visibility. However they can make out that the hole itself looks to be a jagged square that runs around what use to be the building's parameter. There are several large cracks on the edge of the collapse, but nothing looks like it'll collapse further. They can also make out that all the power cables that run underground have been severed. "Well no wonder the power is out in the area." mentions Travis. Justin however notices something else.

"What is it Monkey number one?" asks Kuroko as she takes notice. "I'm not sure. Does the pattern of the debris seem strange to you?" he asks. Kuroko and Travis look but can only see a massive mess of concrete, twisted metal, and pulverized glass. "Not really. Why? Is there something wrong?" asks Travis. "I can't tell. But something just looks off to me. It doesn't quite look like something a bomb would make. It's probably nothing. Come on we need to get in there." says Justin. The three find a good stable spot and Kuroko teleports them onto the top of the pile. After taking a minute to discuss how they're going to go about removing rubble without compromising the pile's integrity, and where to place the rubble, they begin the long and argues task of digging for survivors.

Thankfully F.I.X.E.D. had its own parking lot behind its headquarters building, making for a perfect place to set the rubble they remove. Using their esper powers, Justin and Travis begin lifting and moving the larger pieces of the rubble pile while Kuroko teleports the smaller pieces. It's slow going, but still faster than waiting of heavy machinery to do the job. However after an hour of slow digging they realize that Justin was right, something was wrong about the pile of rubble after finding no victims yet. "I'm beginning to think you're right Justin." says Travis. "What's with this!? We should have found signs of the top floor by now!" complains Kuroko. "I knew it." says Justin. "What's 'IT!?'" argues Kuroko. "Look around you Shirai-san. All we're finding and moving are reinforced wall pieces and stairwells. This isn't the top of the building as we thought, but are its walls. The main structure of the building fell first and THEN the walls fell in on top of it. No bomb did this! At least not one." explains Justin. "What does that mean?" asks Kuroko. "I'm not 100 percent sure yet, but I do have a theory. But I'll need evidence to prove it. However we should still concentrate on finding victims first." explains Justin.

It takes another four long hours of slow rubble removal before they finally find signs of the roof. They manage to find the crushed remains of the AC and heating units, ventilation shaft hoods, and the roof gravel. By now the rescue operation is fully underway and the heavy machinery has finally come in to help. There are more rescue workers on the pile working hard to find survivors also. After almost another hour of slow work the rescuers finally reach the remains of the first floor. "This is the floor where the President of the company and the other executives worked. They were supposed to be having a board meeting this afternoon according to some of the workers who escaped. They were on the east side of the building, so if you're going to find any survivors, that would be the place to look." explains Inspector Takano over the radio. With the combination of Justin and Travis' powers with the heavy machinery they manage to uncover what's left of the Executive board room, and it's not a pretty sight.

There is blood and smashed body parts all over the place. As hard-nosed as Kuroko is, she can't stand the sight of it and turns away. "Looks like no one on the Executive board survived." says Travis coldly. Justin turns to Kuroko. "Shirai-san I know you may not like it, but we need you to teleport these bodies up to the waiting recovery personnel. We need to keep searching." says Justin. Kuroko slowly turns back around and nods her head. She may not like it but she does have a job to do. The families of these victims will at least want something to have a funeral with. She walks over to some of the male bodies, removes one of her gloves, and places her hand on it. She grimaces a little at the feeling of the blood on her hand. Instantly the body is teleported out of the pile and onto an awaiting gurney. The body of the male victim then gets draped over with a sheet. Kuroko looks at the blood on her hand for a second realizing now this may no longer be a rescue situation, but a recovery one. She then teleports the blood off her hand and moves on to the next body.

After 15 more minutes and seven more bodies Travis and Justin move another large piece of debris when they both receive a shock. There is another body of a male, but with no apparent injuries, say a few scrapes and bruises, having somehow landed in a space of a small cove. "Sheesh. What a horrible way to go. Survive the collapse of a building only to suffocate to death." says Travis shaking his head. Justin however notices something odd. He takes off his glove and feels the person's neck. First off his notices he's still warm but then feels something else. "THIS MAN STILL HAS A PULSE!" he shouts. One of the rescue paramedics runs over and feels his neck and confirms there's a pulse. "Shirai-san! Get this man to some paramedics NOW!" orders Justin. "Right!" she shouts back. She grabs one of the man's arms and *Shawoosh* they both teleport out of the rubble and appear next to a couple of awaiting paramedics.

"This man's still alive!" she shouts to them. With the assistance of the two paramedics they place him on a gurney and roll him into an awaiting ambulance. "Will he live?" asks Kuroko. "We don't know yet. It's obvious he's breathed in a lot of smoke and dust, and it's possible he has some internal injuries, but we'll do all we can." says the paramedic shortly before he closes the back doors of the ambulance. Its siren goes off and it begins to pull away. Kuroko's eyes feel dry and she rubs one with her hand. She pulls out her cell-phone and checks the time. It is now September 29th, 12:05 am. She puts her cell-phone back into her pocket and teleports back onto the pile.

Rescue operations continue for another two hours and only another four bodies are found. Kuroko is starting to feel a little groggy when Justin and Travis happen to come upon another body, this time of a woman. "Ok Shirai-san. She needs to go up too." says Justin sadly. Kuroko lays her hand on the woman's body… but nothing happens. "Huh?" says Kuroko to herself. She looks at her hand for a second and then tries again. Still nothing. Getting irritated she double slaps her face a couple of times and then concentrates really hard. This time the woman's body teleports. Unfortunately it misses the awaiting gurney on stable ground by a foot and falls with a thud into the ground. "Ah damnit…" she mutters as she puts her hand to her masked face. "Shirai-san I think it's about time you take a break and get some rest." says Justin.

"What? No! I'm still good to go." says Kuroko aloud. "Miss Shirai your stomach has been growling for more than an hour. We can even hear it over the heavy machinery. You also look exhausted." says Travis. "And I'm telling you I can still work!" she shouts at him. "Shirai-san that little teleportation mishap you had just proved that you're too tired to think of teleportation calculations. The last thing we need down here is someone who's too tired to think clearly. That's just asking for trouble. You need to get some food and rest up for a bit." says Justin. Kuroko again can't argue with his logic. "Ok fine!" she shouts in angered defeat. "But what about you monkeys? Aren't you going to come up?" she asks. "We're still good here. The recovery people down here can handle your job for now." says Justin.

"All right then. But I'll be back soon. I'm only going to get something to eat and rest for a little while. I'll be back down here within the hour." she says sternly. She quickly turns around and tries to teleport out… but can't. She mumbles something under her breath and heads over to a nearby ladder to climb out while Justin and Travis continue moving large pieces of rubble. Kuroko didn't want to admit it but she is feeling hungry since she didn't have any dinner, and she's tired. She takes off the fire retardant clothing and finally takes off her breathing mask. Her face is flushed red after working in hot and sweaty conditions. She fluffs out the dust and dirt from her twin multi-tails. She then sniffs her wrist. "Ack. I need to take a shower when I get back to the dorms." she says to herself. "Shirai-san!" she hears someone call.

She looks over and see's Mii approaching. Mii had been helping to direct other judgment members in what jobs needed to be done with their power set. "Taking a break?" she asks as she reaches Kuroko. "Yeah. The monkeys down there pretty much forced me out. I'm going to grab something to eat, rest for about half an hour, and then go right back in." says Kuroko sternly still a little upset about being forced out. "Well all right then. Make sure you get some good rest." says Mii as she continues on with her duties. "Right." says Kuroko calmly. She heads over to a wash station and washes off her face and arms and then heads to a chow tent that's been set up to help feed all the emergency personnel that's on the scene. She grabs a plate of curryrice and sits at one of the fold out tables. She eats quickly because there's a rotation of workers constantly streaming in and there's only a limited amount of space at the tables.

After she finishes, she sets her plate on the dirty dishes pile to be washed and then heads over to the side of the tent to sit in one of the fold out waiting chairs to rest a little longer. She leans hack in the chair a bit to stretch out her legs and relax her sore muscles. She closes her eyes for a moment to think about what she's going to say to the monkeys when she gets back onto the sight. Maybe something about not underestimating her.

Kuroko opens her eyes again only to find her view is sideways. Under her head is something soft. She sits up trying to make out what happened. It takes a few seconds before she realizes where she is. She's still in a large tent, but she's lying on a cot with a sheet over her and a pillow at the head. All around her there are other people lying on cots, asleep. She then realizes what had happened. She fell asleep. She quickly gets off the cot, folds the sheet and rushes out of the tent. She's immediately greeted by the bright light of the sun. She can still tell it's morning though. "Oh no. How long was I asleep!?" she says. She pulls out her cell-phone and checks the time. Just past 7:00 am. "I've been asleep for almost five hours!? Man I'm going to hear it from those monkeys now." she says to herself. "I see you're finally awake Shirai-san." says a female voice.

Kuroko looks over and see's Mii coming out of the chow-tent that's right next to the rest tent. "What the hell happened?" asks Kuroko in confusion. "You fell asleep. After you didn't come out of the chow-tent for an hour I was asked to check on you and found you fast asleep in a chair." explains Mii. "Why didn't you wake me up!?" complains Kuroko. "I tried! I called out your name, I shook you, but you were out cold. So I carried you to the rest tent and laid you on a cot." explains Mii. Kuroko facepalms. "Damnit. How could I have been so careless?" she says to herself. Suddenly, "Oh Shirai-san. Finally awake I see." says a familiar male voice. She turns and sees both Justin and Travis coming out of the chow-tent. Both of their clothes are covered in dust and such. "Good morning sweetie!" calls out Travis. "DON'T CALL ME SWEETIE YOU PERVERTED MONKEY!" she screams back as a softball sized anger vein pops up.

"Yep. She's fully awake all right." jokes Travis. "Grrrrrrr!' Kuroko growls as she starts to reach for one of her spikes. "Hey yo! I'm only kidding with you!" says Travis has he puts his hands partly into the air. "Well don't!" growls Kuroko again as she pulls her hand away from her spikes. Kuroko takes a deep breath to calm down. "So. Anything happen while I was asleep?" she asks the three. "Well about an hour after you left we found another survivor. A woman this time. She was badly injured and was barely alive. Doctor's don't know if she'll survive or not." says Justin. "Yep. And that's the reason I was asked to check on you, so you could teleport the woman out of the pile. But you were asleep and we had to get her out the old fashioned way." describes Mii. Kuroko frowns a little believing she let people down.

"Hey don't look that way Shirai-san. You were up very early yesterday morning, you were working extremely hard teleporting people and debris for almost eight hours strait, and you hadn't had anything to eat since lunch yesterday. No one blames you for falling asleep when you did." explains Mii. "Well it doesn't make me feel any better, but I appreciate your comment Konori-sempai." says Kuroko. "Anything else?" she adds. "We managed to pull another 13 bodies out of the pile after that, but no more survivors. Inspector Takano has switched the mission over to recovery from rescue about two hours ago." says Justin with a small bit of sadness in his voice. "I see…" says Kuroko looking away too. That little bit of news would upset anyone.

"So I'm guessing Inspector Takano has given you monkeys a break and you'll be heading on to your hotel to get some sleep now? I'm pretty sure you two are quite tired after that long night." assumes Kuroko. "Yes we're tired, and we will be going to bed later, but not now. We slept on the flight over here so we've only been up for 15 hours; the advantage of jet lag I guess. We just had some breakfast with Konori-san here and we're about to go and ask Inspector Takano for a favor." says Justin. "A favor for what?" asks Kuroko. "I want to ask for permission to go down into the foundation tunnels right up to the F.I.X.E.D. foundations." he answers. "Are you crazy? It's still dangerous around here, especially underground. What could you possibly want down there?" asks Kuroko with some amazement.

"Evidence." says Justin. "Evidence?" says Kuroko with confusion. She thinks for a second before she remembers something. "You mean to gather evidence to support your building collapse theory you mentioned when we were working on the pile?" she asks. "Indeed. If I'm going to find my evidence, it'll be down there." says Justin. "Good grief. You're dead set on going down there aren't you?" says Kuroko with slight disbelief. Justin nods his head. "Okay fine. But don't think you're going to go down there alone. I'm coming with you. I still have to make up for my carelessness for going to sleep." says Kuroko with stubbornness. Justin and Travis both can immediately tell they'll never be able to talk her out of it. "Okay then. I guess we could use an extra pair of eyes to look for evidence." says Justin.

The three spend a few minutes looking around before they finally spot Inspector Takano and approach him to discuss their plan. "Absolutely not!" he barks. "The basement and foundation tunnels are still a mess and, not to mention, they are still full of smoke. I haven't even been able to send any personnel to check and see if there are any survivors down there." says Inspector Takano. "Sir I'm sure you know the faster we figure out how this building fell, the faster we can figure out why and who caused it. Any evidence up here would have been destroyed or deformed by the collapse of the building itself. However the building's lower levels would have less distance to fall and thus could still be useable. And the longer we wait the higher the chances are that the evidence could be compromised." says Justin.

"Look I appreciate that you want to help investigate this case, but you're only here to help catch that Damien person and bring him to justice, not to investigate random acts of terror." explains Takano. "Sir I have reason to believe that these two cases are linked. And if my theory is correct, we'll need to move fast before another attack happens." explains Justin. Inspector Takano raises and eyebrow. "You really believe these two cases are linked?" he asks. "I don't know yet sir. That's why I need to find some evidence. Again any evidence up here would already be destroyed or damaged beyond usefulness. And it's going to take days, if not weeks, before we dig down deep enough through that pile to find any. And by then more attacks could happen." explains Justin more fervently. Inspector Takano crosses his arms and lets out an annoyed sigh. He also taps his foot in thinking irritation.

"All right! All right! You can go. HOWEVER, I'll be going with you as well. Terrorist attacks are under the jurisdiction of Anti-Skill. And as lead investigator of this case, any and all evidence discovered down there will be collected by me. I'll let you look it over when we collect it. If it is connected to your case I'll let you analyze it as well at our labs." explains Inspector Takano. "That's reasonable. Agreed." responds Justin. "Ok then. We'll meet up at the west entrance to the foundation tunnels a block away. I'll have everything ready for us when you get there." says Inspector Takano. "Okay then." responds Justin.

As said the three head over to the west entrance to the foundation tunnels after an hour where Inspector Takano is waiting for them. There are several other emergency personnel and firefighters set up there as well. "Ok. Before we go in I need to tell you that the east tunnel entrance is completely caved in, so this is our only way in. First we'll need to dawn some firefighting gear, just in case we run into anything on fire, plus it's very hot down there too and these will protect us from the heat." says Inspector Takano. Kuroko is a little annoyed that she'll have to wear these stifling clothes again, but she promised she'd go down with them. The four put on the fire gear and breathing masks. Once they're ready, an engineer opens the large gate via its battery backup unit since the power cables were cut when the building collapsed. It opens slowly. Thankfully there's no back blast like some firemen feared, but there is a large cloud of smoke that billows out of the tunnel. "You still sure you want to do this Justin?" asks Kuroko. Justin nods his head. He's sure Damien had something to do with this.

The four enter the tunnel and start heading down the incline that leads to the tunnels. After a few minutes of slowly making their way down, they reach the tunnel intersection and head in the direction towards the F.I.X.E.D. building rubble. The light from the tunnel entrance soon becomes obscured so they have to switch to flashlights. The power is still down so all the red emergency lights are on. The eerie red glow through the smoke makes it seem like it's a completely different world. Kuroko can't help but feel creped out by the sight of it. "Man it's hot down here." says Travis. "Yeah. Too hot for an unprotected person to survive for this long." says Justin lamenting. Both Inspector Takano and Kuroko agree.

Soon enough though they reach an area that has obvious signs of damage. The four stop when they see it. "I don't like the looks of this. This area could be very unstable and could be too dangerous to head in any further." says Inspector Takano. "Hang on we'll check." says Justin. Justin and Travis both head over to the nearest wall. "What you are you two going to do?" asks Inspector Takao. "Did you forget what our powers are? Travis is going to feel out the concrete while I feel out the steel reinforcement." says Justin. "You can actually sense stress forces in the concrete?" asks Kuroko with a little amazement. "To a point yes. Enough to determine if there's too much damage to continue or if it's safe enough to move on." says Justin. Kuroko for once is impressed. Then again her Onee-sama can sense all sorts of magnetic and electronic stuff.

Justin and Travis put their hands on the wall and concentrate. After a minute or two Justin speaks up. "Any problems on you end Travis?" asks Justin. "I can sense several foundational cracks and damage, but nothing that would indicate anything will fall on us. It seems stable enough. What about you?" asks Travis. "Same here. I sense some broken reinforcement bars and several areas of buckling, but it seems to be holding the load just fine." describes Justin. The two turn back around to Inspector Takano and Kuroko. "So?" asks Kuroko. "There are some signs of damage and cracking, but nothing that indicates anything is ready to collapse. It's safe." says Justin. "Impressive. OK let's move on then." says Inspector Takano.

After another five minutes of walking they suddenly reach a dead end. "Did we take a wrong turn or something?" asks Travis. "I was afraid this happened." says Inspector Takano. "What is it?" asks Justin. "It's the emergency bulkhead. There's a sensory network that runs through the foundation tunnels. If it detects a fire or a collapse from an earthquake or something, it'll drop these emergency bulkheads to seal off the affected area so to keep the damage ot fire from spreading." describes Inspector Takano. "Is there any way to open them?" asks Justin. "Not from here. We'd have to go two levels up to just under the surface to reach the emergency override panel. There should be a door along the right wall here with stairs that'll lead us to it." says Inspector Takano. The four shine their flashlights to the right side wall and within seconds, spot the door.

Inspector Takano lightly touches the door knob. It's cool so there's no fire on the other side. He turns the knob and pushes. The door doesn't budge. He then shoulder rams it and it budges a bit. He pushes as hard as he can and it grinds and squeaks slowly open. The four enter the stairwell and point their flashlights up. "Well so much for that idea." says Travis. What they see above them is that the stairwell is completely blocked by debris. "Do you think you could teleport through that Shirai-san?" asks Justin. "Impossible! I can only teleport a max distance of 40 meters. If I try teleporting through that, I could wind up encased in concrete. And that would put an end to this endeavor really quick." says Kuroko. "Well I guess that's it then. We'll have to leave and hope that there's some recoverable evidence after the rubble is all cleared." says Inspector Takano.

As the four reenter the tunnel, Justin hits the wall just outside the door with his fist. "DAMNIT!" he shouts. As he hits the wall he drops his flash light. It hits the floor and goes rolling. When it stops, its beam reflects off something shinny. "Hey… What's that?" Kuroko asks. The other three turn and see something shinny as well. The group heads over to the object in question along the wall. It's a piece of broken rebar with some concrete still stuck on it. Justin points his flashlight up at the ceiling. "Well that's odd." he says. "What is?" asks Kuroko. "Look. There are no holes in the ceiling where this could have fallen out of." explains Justin. The other three look up and sure enough, despite being smoky and a few cracks here and there, there are no large chunks missing from the ceiling. "Ok. So where did this piece come from then?" asks Travis.

Justin thinks for a minute. "Inspector, do you think it's possible this was blown out here during the collapse before the bulkhead closed?" asks Justin. "I can't see how. The network is sensitive. When it detects something starting to collapse it immediately drops the bulkhead." says Inspector Takano. "Then that means just one thing." says Justin. "What is it?" asks Kuroko. "It means this piece of debris was blown in here during whatever caused the building to collapse." responds Justin. Kuroko and Inspector Takano open their eyes in shocked realization. "So that means it was blown in here by the explosives that brought the building down!" says Inspector Takano. "Hmm. I don't think explosives brought this building down. Something feels odd about this piece of steel rebar." says Justin. "What do you mean?" asks Inspector Takano.

Justin points his flashlight at a certain area of the steel rebar. "Look here. You can see fracture cracks running down the steel rebar. This kind of fracturing doesn't happen to steel during explosions." says Justin. "Hey you're right! And the concrete looks intact where the fracture meets the steel." says Travis."So if it wasn't explosives, what caused those fractures?" asks Kuroko. Justin reaches for the rebar. "STOP!" calls out Inspector Takano. "Remember, any evidence found can only be picked up by me." he adds. "I wasn't going to touch it. I was going to use my powers to analyze the rebar's structure." says Justin. "I wouldn't recommend that. If you use you magnetic abilities on it, it could affect the steel's properties and thus ruin it as evidence." says Inspector Takano. "Actually I was just going to do a passive magnetic scan to analyze its structure. I won't place any sort of magnetic field onto the rebar, I just detect its magnetic properties and it gives me a picture of its structure. It's sort of like an x-ray for metal. It won't affect it at all." says Justin.

"You can do that?" asks Inspector Takano. "Yeah. It's the same method I used to sense the structure of the tunnel, just on a smaller level." says Justin. Inspector Takano thinks it over for a second. "Ok go ahead. But if this evidence is deemed to be useless after this, it'll be your head." says Inspector Takano. "Right. Trust me it'll be fine." says Justin. He puts his hand over the piece of rebar and concentrates. As he scans it, a picture of the internal structure forms in his head. He then notices something strange. "Whoa. That's odd." he says. "What is it?" asks Kuroko. "I've never seen something like this before. It's like someone's torn apart the molecules in the rebar." describes Justin. "How do you mean?" asks Inspector Takano. "Well, the carbon atoms in the steel are right where they should be, but the iron… it's like the iron atoms just exploded. No… not exploded… this pattern almost reminds me of how a Prince Rupert's Drop will explosively shatter when you nick it." says Justin.

Kuroko and Inspector Takano look at each other. The phrase "explosively shatter" gets their attention. Justin turns around. "Inspector, didn't you mention that one of the espers Damien killed had the ability to cause iron to shatter explosively?" he asks. "Yes. Are you saying that Damien had something to do with this?" asks Inspector Takano. "He more than had something to do with it, he WAS the cause of it." says Travis. Inspector Takano and Kuroko look at each other again in surprise. "What do you mean?" asks Inspector Takano. "I think it's about time we get all law enforcement on this. Inspector I need you to call for an emergency assembly meeting for all of Anti-skill and Judgment for this afternoon. And please bring that piece of rebar with you and have your labs examine it. You can bring me the results to the meeting. They should confirm everything I've found. It's high-time everyone knew what we're dealing with. Travis and I will explain everything then." says Justin very serious.

End of Chapter 3

To be continued in Chapter 4: Memories Past Part 1.

Story Note: Things are starting to heat up and Damien appears to have already put his plans in motion. But why target this building and its people? What plans does Damien have in store for Academy City next? Look forward to the next chapter to find out. See you then!

Author Note: Whew. Three chapters of fanfiction in less than a week. As you may know I've started ANOTHER story. A fanfiction of the series RWBY. I haven't had this kind of motivation to write AND continue writing in years. And after this weekend, after the final episode of the series my fansub group is doing for this season ends, I'll have a nice long week break to concentrate on writing more chapters. Look forward to seeing them then!


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